This area is for those of you desiring to respond, pro or
con, to my writings in the "Cadenzas" section of this
website. Please feel free to express your own views on various subjects
to which this website pertains: music, culture, education and other subjects
that relate to the society in which we live.

Jim Ferguson is
vocalist and bassist who has worked with
everyone! Among the people with whom he has worked are Nat Adderly, Mose Allison,
Gene Bertoncini, Eddie Daniels, Urbie Green, Benny Goodman, StephaneGrappelli, Jimmy Heath, Al Jarreau,
Marian McPartland, Jay McShann, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Bucky and John Pizzarelli, just to name a few. Jim has been featured on
NPRs Morning Edition, Marian McPartlands Piano
Jazz, Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson, and American
Popular Singer with Eileen Farrell. He currently serves as a National
Vice-president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
(AFTRA) and is on the Board of Directors of the International Society of
Bassists. Jim currently teaches jazz voice and double bass at Middle
Tennessee State University and has participated in numerous clinics and
workshops in the U.S. and abroad. He holds a Master of Music degree in Jazz
Studies and Performance from the University of South Carolina and has three
recordings under his own name including two critically acclaimed quartet CDs
- his latest, in duo with renowned guitarist, Mundell Lowe.
He writes:

Hi Marvin,

As usual, you're right on target with your observations on the condition
of our union. We take for granted that it will last, though it's likely much
more fragile than the "America, love it or leave it" crowd would
have us believe. It won't fail because we take too good care of the
"least of these" among us, though. It'll fail because we become so
entrenched in demagoguery that we grind to a screeching halt. Our system of
government is predicated on compromise. It doesn't matter which side of the
aisle you're on. Running for office on a platform of no compromise or signing
a pledge to vote a certain way if elected is the antithesis of democracy. It
dooms us to retreat to our respective corners, lick our wounds, and wait for
failure.

Robert Draper, author of the new book Do Not
Ask What Good We Do, has recently exposed the chilling plan, devised in a
meeting just following inauguration day by the Republican leadership, to
oppose everything President Obama might propose during his first term,
regardless of its merit toward the good of the country. If accurate, this revelation
should give pause to any American, regardless of party affiliation.

Thanks for your continued commentary on music, life, and the
state of our country. Edmund Burke, who perhaps ironically is considered one
of the fathers of conservatism, is credited with saying, "The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Admittedly, it's often easier to exist in our fan-based business, in the
short term at least, by avoiding politics and justice issues all together.
It's also easy to get so depressed about the seeming intractability of
factions of our society and government that speaking out seems pointless. But
speak out we must. I am glad you aren't "so quiet".

All the best,

Jim

Jeffrey
Mironov is a magnificent musician, a guitarist
fluent any many styles of music. I had the great pleasure of working with Jeffrey
for many years in the New York recording studios. Jeffrey has always been a
deep thinker, someone who felt deeply about people, music, and the world we
live in. He writes:

Marvin,

As I
indicated in my previous email, I rested deeply after reading your thoughts
about Music, along with your accompanying topics of concern. Of course they
are all related in a powerful and wonderful way and I want to speak to that
underlying relatedness now. Everything that you want to know and hear in a
musician is in their tone in the whole note, quarter note sixteenth note, in
the phrase, and most powerfully in the stillness between the notes as well.
That Deep Maturity that we all find so moving is Soulfulness and it is that
quality of Creative Intelligence that is beyond the human personality
entirely. It is that most compelling Precious Attribute that animates our
human personality resulting in spontaneous accomplishments that reflect this
deep wellspring of Creative Intuition and Order. In the process of a life
well lived, we come under the influence and guidance of this magnificent
Creativity which renders us Awake and Alive. We learn to Listen and Hear, to
Learn of this Enriching Understanding and Fundamental Originality, and then
to express the ideas that we are Hearing and Feeling. The scales, register
ability, technical facility, and chosen styles are only the vehicle to
personally express this Deeper Content. In the absence of this Inner
Connectedness or Listening Ability, we are empty and having to resort to
relying on the vocabulary skills and devices which are inherently
insufficient in and of themselves. It is that precious Inner Knowing and
Originality the development of the inner ear which empowers us to Listen,
Hear, and then express the Gifts of the Soul. It is this Art of Listening
that results in Music that powerful abundant and transcendent quality that
speaks from and of what is beyond our worldly or mundane accomplishments.
This is where we are nourished and renewed, fulfilled and now directed by an
Understanding not of this world but certainly for it.

It is this
same Indwelling Understanding that is so essentially necessary in all of the
other related areas of our human and worldly interaction. Only then are we
grounded and oriented in that most personal and intimate Creative Fulfillment
from which we become Soulful beneficiaries and expressers of the Simple
Solutions of the Soul. Mingus said, "Making things complicated is
commonplace but making things simple, profoundly simple, that's Creativity!"
His insight speaks volumes of what Creativity can do in our music, our
families, communities, our politics, international affairs and global
economies, and in the necessary matter of being Conscious Stewards of our
beloved world and its natural and codependent systems.

In
summation, we are speaking to the essential experience of Knowing Thy Self
from which we are freed of the torment and terror of fear. Self-Knowledge
renders us Creative rather than competitive, Cooperative rather than
conflicted, Certain rather than tentative and doubtful, Musical rather than
technical. The Remedy for what 'ails' us as musicians, husbands, wives,
parents, children, workmates, educators, political leaders, corporate heads,
and whatever other roles we assume, is Knowing Thy Self. That is where
the 'rubber meets the road' that is what matters most and where our shared
Creative Reality can enter into our human affairs and Express and Do the Good
that is inherently at the core of our beloved Life and Living.

Love &
Peace,

Jeffrey Mironov

Graham
Ashton was born in London and trained at the Royal Academy of Music. He is
currently Professor of Trumpet, and Chair of Brass at Purchase College, State
University of New York. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras around the
world including the BBC Symphony, the London Philharmonic, English Chamber
Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony in Johannesburg,
New York Virtuosi and Orchestra of Our Time. Recognized for his commitment to
brass chamber music, Mr. Ashton was a member of the Philip Jones Brass
Ensemble from 1981-84 with whom he made 5 records. He formed the Graham
Ashton Brass Ensemble in London in 1989, and reformed the ensemble with
virtuoso brass players from New York City when he relocated to New York in
1999. Mr. Ashton is also a recognized composer and arranger and has written
for film, theatre and the concert platform. He writes:

Hello Marvin,

Why
so Quiet - such a good read. I think this is a global
attitude. So much of what I used to love about England doesn't exist anymore:
the stoic, work-ethical, caring society with a perfectly functioning
government-funded health system, cheap public transport, housing for all, and
free education K-16 - has all disappeared. And the notion of placing fairness
above all has long gone. I could go on but we really must hang a little this
summer.

All best,

Graham AshtonChair, Brass
Studies, Director, Purchase Symphonic WindsPurchase
College, State University of New York

Charlie Melk comes from a family of fine musicians and brass
repair people. He lives and works in Milwaukee, but is known and respected
the world over for the quality of his work with brass instrument repair and
innovation. Charlie is also one of the truly nice human beings in this
world. He writes:

Hi Marvin,

It is very
good to hear about the relationships you have been able to develop through
the years.

So many shape
who we are, and encourage us to expand our minds. I am glad you chose to
write this section and I do have a few comments about the Why so quiet? section.

First, I am a
Christian and know there is a "Supreme Being" and he does want and
expect us to care for our environment.

The quote
from Shadyac about the I Am
documentary hits it right on the head. St. Augustine said, Determine
what God has given you, and take from it what you need; the remainder is
needed by others.Shadyac says,
Thats my philosophy in a
nutshell. Or as Gandhi put it, Live
simply, so others may simply live.

2nd, When you
talk about Jesus' teachings in the arena of politics, I do agree. There is
not much Kingdom Living going on there. But I know many who are doing
Christ's work all over the globe. A number of my very good friend do things
like, take care of orphans in Columbia, build stoves for families in
Guatemala, care for prisoners incarcerated in Wisconsin, and many others.

Sadly, our
nation is becoming less and less Christian, but it is our voices that need to
heard, in a loving way. Those shouting, need to find
humility and to act in a way of cause for the good of all. And this is
something that I pray for often.

Lastly, I
believe human life is of the highest valve. When people talk about Women's
rights, How is it that killing an unborn child is considered a right? Many of
these abortions would never happen if we demanded that Women and Children are
treated properly. Wiping out any kind of domestic abuse should be at the top
of any man's list.

Curt
Wilson holds BME and MM degrees from Texas Christian University, where he
also served on the faculty for 35 years from 1976-2011. He is an
accomplished composer, arranger, and conductor. A professional woodwind
performer, Curt played with a number of groups, among them the Fred Waring, Tex Beneke, and Tommy Dorsey-Warren Covington Orchestras. As
accomplished composer, Curt has written more than 150 compositions and
arrangements for marching band, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, symphony
orchestra, chamber ensembles, and choir. His Concerto
for Trumpet and Wind Ensemble is an amazing piece
and one of my favorites. Curt retired from the School of Music at TCU as
Professor Emeritus in 2011. He writes:

Marvin

I really
enjoyed reading every word (new retirement benefit) of Cadenzas.
Having spent 53 years as a member of the AFM (Fort Worth/Dallas) as a
commercial woodwind/saxophonist and 43 years as a college/university teacher
-jazz educator, I could not agree more with every word you wrote from the
music- end (sacred) to the political (profane) .

I am,
personally, disturbed by the lack of respect that many in the conservative
niche display towards the president. Regardless of policy differences there
is a disturbing , in some cases, racist, agenda
against President Obama. My goodness, look what the man inherited! I do not
agree with some of his decisions and policies but I firmly believe that he is
trying his best for the good of this country. It's difficult to comprehend
factions on the other side of the aisle vowing that their main agenda is to
see that he does not win a second term. Really???

You often
speak to the "totality" of the musical experience - expressing the
beauty in "classical" music AND jazz. If there is one thing that I
hope I have achieved as a teacher it would be the concept of the student (and
teacher) embracing the wonder and excitement present in both idioms. If
someone can love a great Bill Evans performance as well as Samuel Barbers Violin Concerto then that person is, indeed, a
very hip mother - grabber!

I just
returned from an hour at the gym and heard some Woody Herman, Four Freshmen,
Pat Williams, Cal Tjader, Stan Getz, Shostakovich,
and me!

Cordially

Curt

Terry
Steele received an MM in classical performance on saxophone from the
University of North Texas in 1975 and spent 32 years teaching at Slippery
Rock University, retiring in 2007 as a Professor Emeritus. Since then he has
been the saxophone instructor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Steele is the saxophone soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony on all
concerts and tours that require a saxophone and he is busy as a freelance
musician, playing with legendary musicians including Ella Fitzgerald, Ray
Charles, Aretha Franklin and Bobby McFerrin. He taught at the Pennsylvania
Governor's School for the Arts for eight years and served three terms of
office as the PA State President of IAJE. He writes:

Hello Marvin,

We have never
met, but I attended NTSU a few years after you and have had a career as a
university professor, free lance saxophonist and
served three terms of office as the Pennsylvania State President of IAJE.

Your words on
the political and moral decline in America rang true with me. Every word rang
true. There is always hope for America, but I have never witnessed this kind
of greed and divisiveness in my lifetime. Yesterday Jerry Bergonzi
and I had an hour long talk about this on the way to the Pittsburgh airport
and he feels exactly the same ....of course .... all educated
people with a heart feel as we do. Perhaps it has to reach this point before
we can have a real change in Washington. If we are to ever recover from the 8
disastrous years with George Bush, we have to work together ... even with ourdifferences.
Musicians do this every day. It's not that hard.

Thank you for
being outspoken. We normally don't need to enter this arena, but America is
in a crisis situation so it has become necessary. You have earned respect worldwide,
so your comments will resonate.

Thank you,
Marvin

Sincerely,

Terry Steele

Larry
Dwyer plays trombone and piano, and serves as Director of Jazz Studies at the
University of Notre Dame in Indiana. A member of the Baha'i Faith, Larry
believes that spiritual principles of unity among all people will ultimately
solve the world's problems.

In regard to
your political rant, Why So Quiet?, it seems
that the United States is clearly heading toward total fiscal insolvency. One
would think that the prospect of national bankruptcy surely would impel our
national leaders to do something. But based upon their track record, none of
them will. Not the Democrats, not the Republicans, not anyone. And after we
default on our ballooning national debt, none of them will take
responsibility. The Ds will blame the Rs; the Rs will blame the Ds; and the rest of us will suffer the
dire consequences. Political divisiveness will kill us. As you know, I
believe that spiritual unity among all people will provide the ultimate
solution.

In regard to What
Is Music? I came across this YouTube video recently:In a Mellow Tone (Part 2/2)
It has an all-star group playing In a Mellow
Tone.Part 1 (if you
are curious) has solos by Benny Powell, Buddy Tate, Dizzy, and James Moody.
Part 2 begins with wonderful solos by Clark Terry and Gene Harris.

Then comes Harry "Sweets" Edison, who plays from 3:42
to 5:34. How would you like to have to follow Dizzy Gillespie and Clark
Terry? Marvin, you could do that, but still the thought occurs, What can
Sweets play that wasn't already said by Dizzy (even though it was not his
best day) and by Clark (who was playing marvelously). The smile on Ray
Brown's face says it all.

Sweets
embodies
the qualities you describe in your article. Every note he plays has human
feeling. One of Sweets trademarks was repeating the same note numerous time,
and then trailing off with a descending figure.He
does it right at the end of his solo (beginning at 5:19), with 18 consecutive
Bbs, and every one of them "matters."

Finally, in
regard to What Was It lIke Playing With...?
Although my playing skills on trombone and piano are not at your level, I
have had the opportunity to play in groups with dozens of "famous"
musicians, and in backup groups behind numerous "stars." You are
right, we humble musicians never get to fraternize with the stars, but
getting to talk with the musicians has always been a treat. One of the great
experiences of my life was after the 2008 Collegiate Jazz Festival here at
Notre Dame, getting to talk with you and Jim McNeely about music, life,
people, the world, God, and all of reality.

So thank you
for taking the time and effort to write Cadenzas, because it is
always a treat when you share your wisdom.

Best,

Larry DwyerDirector of Jazz
StudiesUniversity of
Notre Dame

Danny Hollis
is an old and dear friend from Memphis. Danny is an excellent trombonist and
pianist, having a very successful career working in Memphis and Dallas. He
now lives in Nashville. Although Danny is quite modest, anyone who has played
with him will tell you he is a very fine professional musician with a wide
scope of music under his belt. His observations about music and teaching are
deeply insightful and relevant to what is going on today. Danny is certainly
no "lightweight," and what he has to say carries great meaning. He
writes:

Marvin,

As always, I
enjoyed reading your newsletter.

As I have
aged, I think a lot about how much I owe to those musicians I played with
when I was a young man who either hired me or stood on the bandstand with me during
my early years. It has always been important to me to be able to perform with
people better than I amI think its one of the best ways
to learn. You were one of those people in Memphis, and I thank you for your
generosity. You were one of those people who always asked me where my horn
was if I showed up some place where you guys were playingeven
if it wasnt my intention to be in the way of men
at work. I never made it to the level where I was
privileged to play with people of the stature you mention in your article.
You guys were my stars. Now that I dont play anymore because
Im losing my hearing, I wonder sometimes if I
would have been better off in another business. Then, I close my eyes and I
see a face or hear the voice coming from the end of a horn and I know I would
do it all over again. I thank you and everyone else who were a part of my
growing up years.

Musicality is
such a hard thing to define. Some people just have it. Some people have to go
to school and find the right teachers to get it. For some, its
a combination of a lot of time in the practice room and a lot of time glued
to the record player. Notice, I said record player. There are so many ways to
hear music now, but I hold on to my vinyl like an investment in prescious metals. Young players today are fortunate to
get so much jazz education! The only jazz class we had at Memphis State in
the 60s was lab bandno improvisation class
and no jazz history. When I was at TSB here in Nashville, before I went to
Memphis, we started a little Dixieland band back in I think 1956. We didnt
have anyone to teach us that music and we only had maybe two or three
records. The rest of the music we heard we had to stay up late at night
(sometimes at the risk of getting into trouble) and listen to whatever we
could find on the radio. There was no jazz on the radio here in Nashville
then. I think about what it might have meant to us to have someone help us
with our music and how much of a jump it would have given me when I moved to
Memphis for College. I actually tried to get rehab to send me to Peabody so I
could stay hear, because my last year in high
school and had already begun playing with some of the bands here in Nashville
and I didnt want to give up my place on the stairs. It
didnt work outrehab wouldnt
send me to a private school. Sorry about the asideit
doesnt have anything to do with what I started out
to say.

Sometimes I
think the kids get so much education now before theyve
had a chance to hear a lot of music or gather some kind of historical
perspective that it hurts the development of their musicality. Some of it is
just the eagerness of youth to demonstrate what they can do. I dont
have a solution. I just think the kids have to sort it out for themselves.

For years,
there has been a group of trombone players who have felt the need to play the
top of the horn because Bill Watrous does. There
are a couple of marvelous players here in town who I enjoy hearing very muchRoy
Agee and Roger Bistle. They both use the whole
range of the instrument and they both still know what the slide is for. I
wish more young aspirants could hear both of these guys play. You know, I
went to school at North Texas with people who had no idea who Jack Teagarden
was!

I wish I knew
more about post bop harmony. I dont
know that I would ever play that way, but I would like to know what theyre
doing. My hands are small, and some of the voicings
I dont think I can reach. I do think that when it
comes to contemporary jazz, some consideration has to be given to the
audience. We suffer now from dwindling listeners and a lot of those who still
attend jazz performances just dont hear the same things
we do. I dont mean to say that new things shouldnt
be happeningthere should always be growth. If we want the
music to stay alive though, we have to remember to consider the people
listening.

As to
politics, I hear the rhetoric from both sides every day and I just shake my
head;. It isnt worth losing friends
over I think people forget how lucky we are to live in a country where we are
free to express our opinions. Having the freedom doesnt
issue a license for bickering and name calling. Im
afraid the 24 hour news cycle bears some of the burden. They have to do
something with all that air time.

All right. Ive
used enough bandwidth for now. My best to you and your family and good luck
in your travels. Well see you the next time youre
down here.

Just Old Dan

Bob Bush
is married to a dear friend of mine, Winnie Carson-Bush, with whom I played in
our high school band. We have recently become reacquainted after many years 
a source of great pleasure for me. Bob and Winnie now live in California. Bob
received a BS in English from the University of North Dakota and an MS in
Administration from Chapman University. After serving two years in the US
Army during the Korean War, he worked for Bank of America, then went back to
school, taught high school English for four and one-half years, but then went
to work for IBM to support his family. Bob got back into teaching at the four
through six grade level, then moved to the middle
school area, teaching grades seven and eight English, Drama & Physical
Education. Now retired, his teaching career totaled thirty-seven years in the
classroom. He writes:

Marvin---I so
enjoyed this issue. You have so much musical knowledge that I lack I hesitate
to tell you what music is to me, but here goes. The first record I bought as
a teenager was Billy Eckstine's
"Caravan." It was a 78rpm slate record I had to play on a neighbor's
player, as we didn't have one. I bought it so I could imitate Billy, which
was a usual thing for kids my age to do. The more I listened to the song,
primarily for the words, I realized that what I really liked about it was,
for lack of the right musical words, that it was "complete." His
voice went with the lyrics, which went with the music, which went with the
instruments, which went with the arrangement. It was as though they belonged
to each other. You know I taught English, so you know I am more of a word
person, but that concept of completeness has stuck with me over the years and
helped me enjoy the beauty of what you and others do so well: make beautiful
music.

Your
commentary on why you have been quiet brought out my current concern. Consider
that Congress members -- past, present, future AND their families-- have
their health insurance paid for by citizen-taxpayers IN PERPETUITY. A
majority of one party passed the Affordable Healthcare Plan, with the other
party not only voting against it, but voting against parts of it that they
had sponsored and voted for when they opposed the Clinton plan. So now
thirty-some attorneys-general have sued, and nine Justices, ALL OF WHOM HAVE
THEIR INSURANCE PAID BY CITIZEN-TAXPAYERS, are going to determine whether
requiring citizens to take personal responsibility to pay for their health
insurance, is constitutional. Why is it constitutional for all citizens who
pay taxes to pay health-care costs for two parts of our government, but
possibly unconstitutional for congress to require citizens to bear personal
responsibility for their own health care costs. There is an incredible irony
here. Whatever one feels about the individual requirement, one has to see
that there are inequities with the interpretations of parts of our
Constitution. What infuriates me about this is that the arguments are
predicated on the political position to limit the President to one term, rather that evaluating what is good for the
citizenry! Like you, I have grave concerns about where our nation is headed.
I remember that an American statesman once said that "Compromise is the
art of politics." We sorely need statesman and artists in America!

Winnie and I
are doing well, just aging! So great to hear from you.

Bob

Dr. Judith
Schlesinger is a psychologist, author, educator, jazz
critic, musician, and producer. Her writing has appeared in both the popular
and professional press, but as she is allergic to hives, you won't find her
on Facebook or Twitter. Her Shrinktunes column,
about the intersection of psychology and music, has appeared on
allaboutjazz.com since 2002, along with her CD reviews, musician interviews,
and assorted cultural commentary. Judiths new book is The
Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius (available online at www.theinsanityhoax.com.) The product of
three decades of scholarly research and creative experience, it
systematically (and humorously) dismantles the popular link between talent
and psychopathology, arguing that great creativity should be celebrated,
rather than diagnosed. She writes:

Hello Marvin,

Good to see
your bytes again! Fully understand and agree with you, as usual. Glad you
were able to get all that off your chest, and well-said, as usual! Here's my
publishable response:

As I look
around at the sociopolitical landscape (and/or try to avoid it by not
watching commercial TV or joining the twittering hive), I've been wondering
whether my dismay and disgust are just a function of the aging process. The
question is: have I simply attained my natural curmudgeon status, when, more
or less automatically, everything was better before, the kids today have no
respect, and the country is going to hell in a hand basket?

Although I
currently have no cane to wave in the air - thank goodness - I feel like I'm
doing it figuratively. And, predictably. Someone once read me a quote about
the decline of civility etc. in the younger generation, and it turned out to
be from Plato.

And yet - and
yet! - I do believe there is a qualitative
difference, and not a hopeful one, in today's culture. It is
not merely having to step aside for the new, which is alien in so many
ways. There really is a deterioration, a coarsening,
and a thoughtlessness. I've long been complaining about educational practices
that began in the 1970s that minimize the pursuit and recognition of
excellence because it might make the less capable feel badly about themselves. That's when self-esteem became more important
than learning. It's not a big step from there to the belief that everyone can
be a celebrity, even for doing nothing of value.

Moreover,
when you fold in the lack of personal boundaries, where there are no brakes
on intimate disclosures or limits to voyeuristic curiosity, and add the dazzling
speed of communication, which makes so many people terrified about not being
up on the latest whatever  you produce a climate
that rewards both shallowness and extremism. Finally, the fact that the
Internet offers a giant, insatiable content maw means that every piece of
information is necessary and important  and therefore,
nothing is.

Like you, I
have other agendas to cover. For one thing, my three decades-long campaign
against the mad genius stereotype has finally produced that book Ive
been wanting to do (shameless plug department): The Insanity Hoax:
Exposing the myth of the mad genius is now at online retailers as
well as www.theinsanityhoax.com But you
can be sure that my own cultural discontent is in there, among all the
psychology and jazz and history.

OK, down
soapbox.

Judith

Jim Vedda is a veteran saxophone and woodwind player of 40
years. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he and his brother led their own band
in the 70s and early 80s.
He has performed in jazz ensembles around the country and currently resides
in Alexandria, Virginia. His work involves policy research and analysis for
space programs at NASA, the Defense Department, and other government
agencies, which explains his acquiring a Ph.D. in political science instead
of music. In addition to playing music, he reviews jazz CDs, with the goal of
being the best jazz reviewer on Amazon.com. You can check out his reviews at
Amazon.com: Profile for James A. Vedda. He writes:

Marvin,

You must out
of breath after such a long solo break. How do I begin to share my rabid
agreement? Let's take it one section at a time.

What IS
Music?I bet everyone
reading this piece started thinking about all the characters they've played
with who fit your description of less-than-musical soloists. I've worked with
my share of players who display far too much flash, far too little style and
taste, and make every solo sound the same. Some of them actually see this as
a mark of virtuosity, and get miffed if they don't feel they're getting
enough solo space (which is most of the time).I just think
back to a teacher, 40 years ago, who used to invite students to his house for
listening sessions. He kept saying things like, "Listen to the ideas
that cat is playing..."

What was
it like playing with... ?You end this
piece by saying it could fill a book. Well, why not? You obviously have both
the writing skill and the life experience that would keep readers interested.

I've been reading
a few jazz biographies lately. (I'm almost finished with the new one on
Norman Granz, which is quite good.) These books
feature the celebrities, but the rank-and-file don't get the recognition they
deserve. For some time, I've toyed with the idea of a book with a title like
The Unsung Heroes of Jazz: Life in the Studios. It would tell the story that
you highlighted in your piece, which reminds me of my formative years when an
important component of my jazz education was reading album liner notes. I wish
I could be the one to write that book, traveling around to interview my
heroes and to research jazz archives, but it would take way too many years
given my other commitments. Maybe this is the book you should write, and I
could help you, if you think you need any help. Something to think about.

Why so
quiet?You are an
astute observer with the ability to think analytically. My condolences. I'm
afflicted with the same unfortunate characteristics, which can sometimes
provoke anger that would make the Incredible Hulk look like a wimp.

I did not
become a political scientist, and eventually settle in Washington, because I
like politics. I grew up equating politics with partisan sniping and negative
election campaigns. I hated these behaviors then, and I hate them even more
now. On the other hand, as I grew older I discovered that we have a system --
institutions, a policy process, an environment for
public-private sector collaboration -- that can work miracles if employed
properly. Improve living standards at home and abroad, advance science &
technology, defeat threats to international peace and prosperity, etc. The
trouble is, we seem to be reaching the nadir of our
ability to employ it properly.

You nailed
the education problem pretty well. Politicians count on exploiting ignorance.
One of my pet peeves is people rewriting history to suit their ideological
goals. Another is the tea-partiers and others who wave around their little
pocket copies of the Constitution, but clearly don't understand what's in it.
Let's see, there's checks and balances among three
branches of government, a bicameral legislature -- in short, the founding
fathers were saying that in a democracy, it's all about compromise. Yet the
extremists point to the Constitution and scream, "No compromise!"

I just
finished writing my second book. (I hope to have it out by late summer.) A
major theme is the demonstration of how partisanship and parochialism in the
past few years have undermined our ability to formulate and commit to a
sensible strategy for space exploration and development. I'll spare you the
details now, but suffice it to say that the space program is not immune from
partisanship, and never has been -- contrary to conventional wisdom.

I can see
from your rundown of the issues that we'd have plenty to talk about if we sat
down together. Maybe I could fill in some of the "inside the
Beltway" perspective, but I can't promise that I'd tell you anything
that would soothe your concerns. Possibly just the opposite. Well, we could
always go back to talking about music.

Be healthy
and try to relax,

Jim

Cadenzas - Edition XXXII

Evaluation and Reaffirmation

Danny
Hollis is an old and dear friend from Memphis. Danny is an excellent
trombonist and pianist who has had a successful
career working in Memphis and Dallas and now in Nashville. Although Danny is
quite modest, anyone who has played with him will tell you he is a very fine
professional musician with a wide scope of music under his belt. He is
certainly no "lightweight!" He writes:

Marvin,

Thanks for
your music, and for the work you do in trying to keep jazz alive.

Regarding
your most recent newsletter and the responses you posted Id
like to say a couple of things:

1. Regarding
the concept of creating music instead of just demonstrating your skills, I
once heard someone say Its better to learn to
play inside before you learn to play outside. I can remember
playing a dance band job on piano with a big band that included a number of
young players from UNT. The leader of the band called up one of those old
Glenn Miller stocks that weve all grown so tired
of through the years. One of the young guys playing tenor saxophone stood up
and proceeded to try and play everything he knew in 16 bars. It was out of
character for the chart and it certainly didnt get anyones
attention in the audience. Ive found too that
trying to talk to younger players about historical perspective is difficultespecially
if theyre sure they play better than you do. Ive
stopped doing that because most of them actually do play better than I do
now. It has to be up to people for whom they have a lot of respect to get
this message through.

2. About
technology. I agree with a lot of your respondents that the prevalence of
technology today has created some problems that wed
be better off without. At this point, I have to speak for myself. When I went
to college in Memphis, my life would have been so much easier if I had had a
computer with a text to speech program for writing papers, a scanning and
reading program for reading textbooks and literature, a music printing
program for theory, composition and arranging and a keyboard I could plug
headphones into for practice time when no practice room was available. WOW!
That must be the king of run on sentences, but I couldnt
figure out a different way to get that said. I have all of these tools now
and though its a bit late for their use to mean anything
with regards to my career, these tools do let me continue to study and read
in an easier manner than when I was young.

Because I dont
see well enough to read and play at the same time, I found it easier to play
with traditional jazz bands and other small groups that didnt
require reading skills. I got labeled as a Dixieland player in Dallas because
I spent more than 20 years playing with Tommy Loys
band. I wont take back a single note. I had a good time
doing it and when a lot of other guys who were critical of the style we
played were looking for work, I was able to feed my
family. It should be noted that as a part of that group, I got to play with
and get to know people like Fred Crane, Rich Mattheson,
Lloyd Ebert and Phil Kelly. Most of the time, Ive played trombone,
but for the last few years I was in Dallas, I mostly have played piano. The
people I started out playing with here in Nashville encouraged me to learn to
play everything and play jazz when I could. Thats
been my mode of operation.

My ears are
giving me problems now. I can still hear myself play, but I have trouble
understanding what people say to me. So, basically, Im
retired. My wife and I try to get out and hear some music from time to time.
I go over to the jazz workshop and listen to the jam sessions. Ive
had a pretty good life in music working both as a player and as a teacher,
but I think from here on my new occupation will be as a listener.

Sherri and I
are looking forward to the time when you perform here again. Please keep us
informed.

Be well young
man, and keep playing.

Just Old Dan
(Danny Hollis)

Wade Mikkola is a very fine bassist with whom I had the great
pleasure of playing the summer of 2009 in Finland. Wade is a very fine
performer and teacher who also spent ten or more years working and studying
in the U.S. He writes:

I am the bass
player from Finland with whose trio you did a trumpet workshop in OtavanOpisto a couple of
summers ago. I've been glad to receive your Cadenzas Editions
since then. It has always been a pleasure to read about your experiences and
viewpoints, especially since they usually, or
actually always coincide with mine.

I had to respond
to this edition, since I agree so strongly with your view on the lack of the
"We concept" these days. Every time I get a chance to hear a band
performing jazz nowadays, I seem to leave the place disappointed. There may
be great individual efforts and skilled performances, but the overall music
leaves my soul untouched. This applies to both more experienced players and
younger ones. The experienced ones mainly because they are often accompanied
by younger ones. I have spent a lot of time contemplating on the
"whys", and have come to a conclusion that unfortunately the reason
seems to stem from the "developed" educational system of jazz-music
today. At least here in Finland.

The
jazz-schools seem to emphasize too much the theoretical and technical aspects of music making. This, included with the
"modernistic" emphasis on choices of different styles of jazz,
seems to increase the lack of understanding of the essential aesthetics of
jazz, which were developed long before the "modern" concepts of the
60's. Unfortunately here in Finland, the older styles are considered of
lesser artistic value and given just the stamp of "only
entertainment." Thus the "baby is thrown out with the
bathwater," if you understand what I mean. Of course there are
exceptions to the rule, but they are increasingly few. In performances, the
musicians seem to be geared to showing off all the things they can do on
their instruments, instead of formulating the music into a common goal, as
you pointed out in your "Evaluation and Reaffirmation" section.

Innovation
can today be considered another curseword, as far
as the music is concerned. The youth is instilled with the goal of being
innovative, and unfortunately this seems to mean that one has to avoid doing
things that have been done before. This could be a great concept, but it
usually causes the musicians to color their music with tricks and effects
that they think nobody has done before, and this is not meeting the demands
of the music, or how to make it sound better. The media and different
official institutions of jazz seem to have fallen prey to this striving for
sensational innovations.

I am sorry to
sound so negative about these issues but it is increasingly frustrating to
try to maintain one's commitment to musical aesthetics these days. That is
also why I wanted to respond to you, to thank you for your viewpoints, since
they have been very helpful in these efforts, and given support to continue
on my chosen way.

What is the
answer? How can we have an effect on these new developments? These phenomena
seem to be so global that it looks like a cyclical phase. It is sad to see
that the educational curricula have not been able to instill better
aesthetical understanding of jazz on developing musicians. In my classes of
Afro-American Music History and Aesthetics, I try to emphasize on the
plethora of musical materials in the earlier styles of jazz, and how it
serves as a source for the individual to pick materials that best serve one's
own direction and capabilities - and start developing one's own style from
those premises. Hopefully it will give a wider spread of musical, aesthetic
and stylistic understanding in the minds of the students.

Hopefully I
did not bore you with my points, because based on your experiences on a
higher and wider level, and your writings, you have gone through a lot. I
just wanted to let you know that you have given great support with your Cadenzas
to my struggle in this wide world of music.

All the best
wishes to you, Wade Mikkola

P.S. Looking
forward to seeing "Waiting for the Superman". Thanks for the
review! And good to read about your experiences in the Cadence-interview.

Jim Vedda is a veteran saxophone and woodwind player of 40
years. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he and his brother led their own band
in the 70s and early 80s.
He has performed in jazz ensembles around the country and currently resides
in Alexandria, Virginia. His work involves policy research and analysis for
space programs at NASA, the Defense Department, and other government
agencies, which explains his acquiring a Ph.D. in political science instead
of music. In addition to playing music, he reviews jazz CDs, with the goal of
being the best jazz reviewer on Amazon.com. You can check out his reviews at Amazon.com:
Profile for James A. Vedda. He writes:

My first
reaction was, "So you've noticed that too?!" It seems like a lot of
players today, in every age group, aim simply to
impress the audience and/or their peers with their technical prowess. Some
never outgrow the misplaced belief that a great jazz solo will result from
the following:

1. Play as
many notes as possible without hitting any clams.2. Play as high
as possible, especially toward the end of the solo.3. Don't leave
any empty spaces.4. Remember,
don't hit any clams.

As a young
saxophonist, I always wanted to listen to the flashiest players like Phil
Woods and Don Menza, and never paid adequate
attention to lyrical soloists like Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, and Paul Desmond. That
came later -- along with a realization that Woods and Menza
can also be lyrical, and Cohn, Sims, and Desmond were technically very
proficient. To give just one example of both qualities: Menza's
solo in "Time to Leave," the up-tempo closer of his 2005 CD "Menza Lines." Recorded when Menza
was in his late 60s, the solo is both very melodic and very hot! What a
brilliant demonstration of improvisational maturity.

These days, I
still hit some clams on occasion, but I approach each solo as a spontaneous
composition of ideas that people might actually be interested in hearing. An
old teacher always recommended jazz artists and particular recordings by
saying, "Listen to the ideas this guy is playing!" The more my
playing and listening matured, the more I realized he was right to express it
that way.

My best,Jim

Gerald
Gordy is a recreational amateur bassist living in southern Illinois. He grew
up in a musical family and acquired a strong background in music. Although
Gerald did not pursue music as a career, many of his family members perform and
teach music, and he has been surrounded by music all his life. Upon
retirement, Gerald acquired an old bass and proceeded to learn to play. In
doing so, he has rediscovered the joy of playing and being a part of music
and enjoys working with and helping talented musicians of all ages. He
writes:

Here is my
take on many young talents and professionals I've heard who have mastered
their instruments, but often fail to fully contribute in a meaningful way to
the quality of music in a group.

1. No one ever
told them, or impressed on them (or they've forgotten) that what ever you do when playing must be for the good of the
piece.

2. They get
full of themselves and play just to show off their own ability. It's great to
show ones ability to play fast, add difference
cadence, other skills, as long as it is for the good of the piece. Sometimes
it seems that one or two feel they are so gifted the rest of the group should
just lay back and enjoy how good they are. They play for themselves not the
music.

3. They get
off on being the one to be heard. In singing in a group of two or more,
one should blend with the others. If you hear yourself above the others you
are singing louder than you should.

4. Expression
and feeling are often the victims of the "hear me play" syndrome.
It's loud, hard, and often fast and that's that until it's over.

5. I believe
a great deal of the dilemma described in your article, concerning solos and
lack of feeling, is from a core "lack of
musical ability." One can master an instrument, learn all the
fundamentals of music but may not have the musical ability to improvise, or
create beauty in music.

6. Playing
beyond your ability. I have taken young, very talented, individuals to jams
to introduce them around. When someone ask them to play something or, name a
tune for the group to play, they will name or attempt the most difficult
number they can think of and proceed to play it at the very limit of their
abilities, or often beyond their abilities. I tell them--"Do something
well--play a good tune with expression and feeling, and if fast, make sure
you do it at a most comfortable speed and are articulate.

7. Some
players don't seem to know that when jamming or playing what I call
structured improvisation, one should: Always play for the good of the
piece; back up the soloist; work with the soloist; work with others; lead the
music if you wish but be aware quickly if no one caught on or is following
you and get back. Ones talent and ability will, if
there, come through. I guess things come with maturity.

I love your
playing. It's interesting that you listen to your early playing and say you
hear the youthfulness coming through. One would think, from the way you play
now, you always played "for the good of the piece".

By the way, I
enjoyed being able to spend a little time with you Bill Mays and Rufus in St.
Louis. I'm sure Bill and Rufus don't remember me out of the crowd at these
events but I'm a big fan of all of you. Bill is so good to give his time to
the International Society of Bassists. He is really a fixture at the
conventions. it would be hard to have the ISB
conventions with out him. Rufus always plays and
presents at the conventions.

Thanks
letting me rant.Your Southern
Illinois fan,Gerald Gordy

Al Molina
is a very fine Jazz musician, a trumpet player, living and working in the San
Francisco Bay area. He writes:

Evaluation
and Reaffirmation caught my attention and is a very thought
provoking piece. I thought it would benefit our local players (mostly trumpet).
To be honest, I couldnt resist and sent them a copy. I gave them
your email address, with the offer you gave to respond. I apologize for not
asking your permission first. But I was so moved by the piece. The condition
that you describe is prevalent in SF. If you play with older (boppers)
players there is a more (inside) mode with a swinging attitude. Whereas, if
you play with the younger (boppers) players, there is a tendency to the
(outside) everyone do your own thing. The ballad becomes an excursion to the
same place, without space, taste, nuance, sustain, etc..
We call it the trapped insect groove. The
result is that there is a division among the players, usually defined by the
gaps in the concepts instilled in the separate generations. The younger
players seem to feel liberated by freeing themselves from melodic, chord , form and time restrictions. Hmmmmm.
I was taught that those are the elements of music 
not to mention the we factor.

Thanks,Al Molina

Cadenzas - Edition XXXI

A Letter To Myself

Mike Metheny is a marvelous trumpet/flugelhorn soloist. A
native of Missouri, he holds both a bachelor and masters
degree in Music Education. Mike was a member of the U.S. Army Field Band in
Washington, D.C., and later a faculty member at Boston's Berklee
College of Music. While in Boston, he led his own quartet, appearing in
numerous club, concert and festival settings across New England and the U.S.
In addition to appearing on numerous jazz recordings as a sideman, Mike has
released eight solo albums and is one of the few trumpeters to regularly
perform on the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument). Today, Mike is a freelance
performer and music journalist in the Kansas City area and former editor of
Kansas City's Jazz Ambassador Magazine (JAM), a position he held for
nine years. Mike and I have shared the stage several times, always a source
of great pleasure to me as we share so many musical values. You may learn
more about Mike and check out his musical contributions at http://www.mikemetheny.com/. He
writes:

Another
provocative edition of Cadenzas. As always, many thanks for
sending.

You've
already been kind enough a couple of other times to give me some space on
your site, but I'll go ahead and press my luck once again.

Along the
lines of "things ain't what they used to
be"...

Recently I
had a spirited (and enjoyable) exchange with one of KC's top jazz musicians.
He is in his mid twenties, hosts a very hip weekly
jazz radio show, and is someone I consider to be part of the up and coming
generation of very capable young performers we must count on to take things
forward.

We had a bit
of a debate about how "the good old days" contrast and compare to
2010 (remember, he was born around 1985) and his position was that
"things will never be the way they once were" and that many
musicians today are just as interesting and forward-looking as those who have
come before. This YouTube clip, a trailer for "Icons Among Us," was
one of the ways he made his case:

And yes, I
sent him to your web site and my essay "When I Was Your Age..."
(Maybe this response should be called, "When I Was Your Age, part
2.")

One thing
this discussion brought to mind was that, at this stage of the game it's easy
to be torn between nostalgia and optimism. My young friend has little or no
memory of hearing important legends live (let alone playing with many of
them, as you have), so in his world, which is more about today than yesterday
(as it should be? or maybe he doesn't have as many "yesterdays" as
I do!), he has no qualms about singing the praises of (fill in the name of
any one of today's excellent young and/or leading players) while wondering if
we "older musicians tend to see things through rose-colored
glasses."

He might have
a point. And, as a bona fide cranky geezer, I'm okay with having my world
tested now and then.

That said, I'll still take Miles over Wynton any day. But, at the
same time, I will always enjoy the beautiful playing of Till Brφnner, Alison Balsom, Roy
Hargrove... and the great Marvin Stamm!

Keep up the
excellent work, both on the horn and on this enjoyable site.

Sincerely,Mike Metheny

Harry Smallenburg is a musician (vibes, drums, trombone,
arranging/composing) with a PhD in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA in
photography. Over the past 35 years, he has taught at Wayne State University
and the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, and Pasadena City College and
Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He has been teaching Bible as
Literature for at least ten years, and spent at least eight or nine years
teaching History of Scientific Ideas. He writes:

Hi Marvin,

I'm working
my way through the most recent Cadenzas, but I wanted to
respond to your question about where to find bright spots in a world that
seems to have more examples of horror than goodness and caring.

First, I don't
have any final answers, but one thing I do to try to balance what I read in
the papers is think locally rather than globally
(though even locally I can find examples of callousness and abusiveness). The
global problems (BP, Darfur, Afghanistan, etc.) I personally have very little
control over--even if I were to devote my life to one or another
organization. I limit my media exposure most of the time, especially to the
idiots, and I am skeptical about the possibility that any politician can make
much difference given the necessity of playing for votes in order to do
anything at all.

But around me
I see many examples of people living their lives fruitfully, lovingly, with
dedication and commitment to things they care about. One recent example that
stands out in my mind is a post my wife put on her Facebook page: a holocaust survivor who went with his family to do a
"victory" dance at holocaust sites (to the music of "I Will
Survive"--it is funny, touching, and defiant--a belated but still timely
answer to one of the horrors of the past. My daughter in Connecticut keeps
her music store going by offering summer camps, deals on lessons, etc.,
etc.--and this gets kids in and involves them in a potentially lifelong
source of satisfaction. If I were a politician, I'd try to do things like
that. You yourself are a wonderful example of a disciple of the gospel of
joy--you and George have been very inspiring to me in terms of what jazz can
mean at its deepest level ("The Holy Grail of Jazz and Joy") and Bob
Rolfe's comment recently that your dedication is an act of love--that's deep,
and it means that there are people making the world a better place. I heard a
moving story on NPR the other day about a woman in Haiti who lets some 100
people live in tents in her back yard. The interviewer asked her how she
could do that--he didn't think he'd be able to. She replied that that was
because he wasn't in the situation. For her, when the need arose, it was a
matter of "being human"--there was no choice for her; she did what was
necessary, in her way, to alleviate the suffering of people around her.
Similarly, for all the stories of athletes who can't seem to do anything
socially useful with their wealth, here and there I see stories of guys who
operate community programs to get kids involved; likewise, for
extraordinarily wealthy people--apart from apparently venal Wall St. CEO's,
there's someone like Bill Gates, whose foundation works hard to bring various
kinds of benefits to the world (understood, there are huge tax incentives for
this, but still--he isn't just trying to shelter all his income, he's
targeting significant world problems and trying to help solve them).

I don't by
any means want to suggest that all is well--there are plenty of stupid,
callous, and disrespectful people locally--like the girls here in Burbank who
went up and down the streets breaking into unlocked cars and rifling the
contents of glove boxes in hopes of finding an Ipod
or some other trifle. And then there are the political and global problems we
read about all the time, and the political opportunists--the list goes on. I
get to weigh on those in nearly meaningless ways--the occasional trip to the
ballot box, and financial support for causes I
believe in.

When I look
through Cadenzas, though, I feel like I enter a world where
life is positive, good things are happening, there's a community of
like-minded people dedicated to art in a wholesome way, and your
outspokenness (since I tend to agree with your perspectives) is refreshing.

So, thanks
for Cadenzas and your other activities. These are the local
sites where I look to find the positive.

Harry

Lou
Gonzalez is a trumpet performer and teacher in Las Vegas. He has played with
many bands and backed many top name performers. He is well versed in both
music and literature and works with many young people in his teaching.
Reading Lou's writings is like reading poetry--very
moving and quite touching. He writes:

Thanks for
the new musings-you nail it every time, as a great lead player does.

your letter to yourself
bared your soul, those words, and the review of your younger self, and the
young cats you recently performed with, are priceless. thebuddhists say "would you rather consult
someone with 25 years of experience, or someone who as
had the same experience for 25 years in a row?"

you have come a very long
way, and have the words to describe a unique journey. this is not a gushy fan
letter, it's that there aren't any musicians who can talk straight about a
lifetime of sitting behind (jakes words) "the coil of torture" and
who make some sense of our baffling world...and the cats on bandstands here,
well, lets just say they not only never heard stravinsky or brahms, but never
heard or heard of oscarlevant,
ogdennash, langstonhughes, poulanc, samuel becket, or charliemargolis, pee wee
hunt...booker little, oliver, thad...this
town is devoid of musicians of a certain age, who were curious, interested in
more than mouthpieces and lead pipes and double c...dude, i
feel like a dinosaur at the ballet. no, they don't
know who wrote that music in fantasia, either. and
books on paper are being outsold by books on the kindle electric reading
board.

i tell the kids i teach that they are going to another era, back in time
to a place where one slowly, through diligent and arduous effort, learnt and
earned the joys and laughter of music and community, of a shared culture, of
the creating of a society of citizens, and yes, of HARD WORK, partaking of a
very special kind of camaraderie-a team of individuals dedicated to
expressing ancient and new beauties through their very own unique efforts. no
electric tools, gameboards, big screens, special
effects...no need to be a heroic jock, or to mock a lesser talent (they learn
to teach and help each other from day one.) they get an old, old way to
become something new-, to appreciate each other, to become more human, to do
what we get admonished to do in churches of all kinds-to give, to love, to
share compassion, all created by learning to breath and move and act in harmony...and
if it wuz easy, everybody would be doin' it.

your words from the heart
also make tangible and concrete what we hear when we listen to guys like horowitz and rubenstein, who
played the same tunes in 1930, and in 1980. theirchopin and scarlatti and schumann evolved, and transformed,and
eventually became something new. we heard them
growing up. miles, pops, dexter, newk, snookums and those jones
boys...all our heroes, and hey...sinatra, beverly sills, callas, james
brown and john lennon, and pollack,
picasso, robert frost, alice walker-all these folks became, changed, struggled
to evolve... they didn't just show up one day and KA-bang!!!, that's it, got
my act, i'm done, perfect,gonna keep on keepin' on
with this thing.

i pulled these names out of history
specifically 'cuz they exemplify what you say in
your writings.

listen. practice
the techniques that keep the physical and mental tools honed, supple, and
poised to do the bidding of the soul/mind/spirit/artistic nature. then listen.

gee, that sounds
easy...no, not easy, but sounds like simple clear advice, and a nice way to
approach a lifetime of study. very uphill for me,
but every day i work at it. if
not with the horn, then with students, my house, the laundry, dishes. aha. morebuddha.
life is simple, not easy. "boil
water. make tea. drink tea.
wash up." and i get
to start over every day...i get to listen and
learn. andi'm so
impatient and angry and frustrated and i hurt and
am hurt and the economy and the politix and...i listen, and begin again, and
put my face to the sun, and breathe deep, deeper. andi hear peace. you got my
attention. i listen. i go play with lame asses and
with great players who listen, and listen hard, and great Performers who hear
nothing but Their Sound (oooohhhh) and kids who lay
for the High Note. andi
learn, and i play better, or worse. andi begin again, frustrated,
mad, sad...and i get over it, and someone says-wow,
we really sounded great on that, it was as good as it gets. and we smile and try to carry on, humbler and laying for
the Music, the sharing, that Thing that says we are all in the moment and the
swing is there..."DYNAMICS???? i'm
playing as loud as icaaannn!!!"
yeah, man. "hey, i
got credentials, buddy de franco AND buddy rich AND
buddy guy stiffed me." yeah, well. mf don't
always mean mezzoforte, ace.

your words
tumble out on the page, they seem unedited, free, flowing, yeah, like trane, sure, with lotsa
technique, power, and control, yet full speed, full tilt, soaring, a bit
wild, because you finally can say what you wanna
say-flourishes and pyrotechnics may show up, but they are the icing, the
embellishments, not the ravings of a kid who can do all this neat stuff, not
just clever and glib and flashy...but deep-down true, and spoken with the authority
earned not just through experiences, but with deep reflection and
introspection, and analysis of a serious person taking measure of a
life. oh, crap, did i
just call you "wise" ???/ sorry. i'm sure there is a wife lurking
to disabuse you of the misconception, thats what
wives are for, eh??? but, hey, the shoe
fits...don't get mad, now, my daddy always warned us to be careful of taking
ourselves too seriously-that was a crime in his book. he
also chided me to seek wise counsel, so i take
advantage of your good nature, but not frequently-i
don't want to be a nuisance. and your wisdom and learning and growth and
evolution come out on the bandstand-the kids hear it, too, they describe the
group as having a conversation, as a team like the lakers,
striving together... they never ever heard that kinda
music before, but they see it, they hear it, and they get it, it's not like
the music they watch on tv-this stuff is deeper,
has more to offer. some kids don't like it, but they
get the point of it from their mates-they understand at an evisceral level that this is real, and deep...

as a friend said on
hearing a performance of the same piece by two super trumpetists,
one 19 yrs old, the other 40. she
said the younger sounds great, and has style, and chops and interprets
well-and is at the limit of his expression, and pushing his strengths, trying
for the maximum with every nuance...but the older player is like a glacier. you hear beauty and suppleness and subtle lines, but
that's really the minor, obvious, immediately accessible part of the
performance. it's the other, inner workings, that hidden, deep, massive 80%
of the glacier you can't see, yet you absolutely feel, and know is there-that
reserve, control, and strength giving subtle shadings and richness...the
depths of his soul are coming through his play.

you incite. i read your cadenza at 2 am, and sat down here at
7.30-it's 11.30 now, and ive written a bit, done
some dishes and laundry and cooking,etcetc
and am still in your debt-i was battling the downside,
you've again given me the lift, the bouyancy, the
push to get to work, to transcend the bullshit, yes, to aspire...thanks,
coach.

Mark Hatch
studied trumpet at the University of Utah where he also met Nyles Steiner, the inventor of the EVI (electronic valve
instrument). Mark has performed on both the trumpet and EVI on numerous TV,
film, and jingle sessions in Los Angeles. He also played and recorded with
Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and Rufus, Bette Midler,
Louie Bellson, Vinnie Colaiuta,
and others. Mark "officially" retired from the business in 1996. He
writes:

Marvin, you
may recall we met a couple years ago at your concert at the Jazz at the A
frame concert in LA. We spoke about Walt Fowler etc. and exchanged a few
emails. I'm a trumpet player from Los Angeles who first met you when I was a
student in Bill Fowler's college program back in the late 70's when you came as visiting faculty.

Anyway, in
regards to your letter to yourself in the latest Cadenzas... First of
all, I hear you in your frustration about the general state of things and your not wanting to dwell there
in your writing. You asked for subject ideas, and I'm taking this opportunity
to suggest a subject I've always thought would be interesting, and that you
would be very qualified to write about. You were so involved in the NYC scene
during that very special and unique period of roughly the late 60's through
the late 70's. I'm taking about the "jazz studio scene" (for lack
of a better description) when all those classic Verve, Solid State, A&M,
and CTI records were done. It seems like that must have been such a special
time for you all, as you were able to actually stay busy in NYC recording
regularly on creative jazz recordings. I'm thinking of Oliver Nelson, Wes
Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Gary McFarland, Thad & Mel, Pat Williams, Duke Pearson etc. How about telling what that scene was
really like from the inside? All the great jazz players that were doing
regular studio work (yourself, Bernie Glow, Jerome
Richardson, Clark Terry, Randy Brecker, Grady Tate,
Herbie Hancock etc). The
scene at Jim and Andy's etc. You get the point here I'm sure. For those of us
coming up and learning the music at that time, those records, musicians, and
writers were legendary, and they played a big part in inspiring us to become
musicians. I've only ever seen a few articles about that time. Hope you'll
consider it. I think there's a great story (stories) there to tell.

Thanks for
the years of enjoyment and inspiration you've given me through your playing.
I've been a fan since Machinations came out (still have a
copy)! By the way, your playing on that great Frank
Foster album, Manhattan Fever, is wonderful, especially Stammpede.

Al the best,

Mark Hatch

Dave Arndt
was born in New Jersey and attended the Philadelphia College of Performing
Arts. Trained classically, Dave worked with Leonard Bernstein on the broadway show "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue", and
many 'legit' venues, including the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia and the
Philadelphia Orchestra Brass Quintet. Dave Arndt has been Principal Trumpet
with the Colorado Philharmonic and Principal Trumpet with La OrchestaSinfonica de Maracaibo
from 1980 to 1983, touring the U.S. with appearances at the Kennedy Center
and Carnegie Hall. He has also performed with Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra,
Steve Lawrence, Edie Gorme, Michelle Legrand, Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne, Sammy Davis, Shirley Bassie, The Spinners, The Temptations, Gladys Knight,
Diana Ross, and others. He writes:

OK, Marvin,
You're ON. Much of what you said in your "letter to yourself"
resonated with me..so I've
got a comment or two (?) and a suggestion for a future topic. So at the
risk of being perceived by you as a real "pain in the ass"..here are some responses
[inline]... I'm going with my suggestion for a Cadenzas topic first... because
my other responses are apt to get under your skin, then you'll stop reading.
(!) So here goes...

Marvin: Well, smart-ass, why
dont YOU suggest something that you would like me
to write about? ...Thoughts, anyone?

Dave: Here is a topic for
you: The fate of live music... and what we might do about
it.

I personally
believe there is at least a "secondary" correlation between a lack
of live music and a lack of civility in our society. I'm not talking about
"concert halls." I'm talking about good live music in casual
settings: "ubiquitous music"... in restaurants, lounges,
clubs.... sidewalk cafe's..you name it. It was once customary to at least
hear live music at weddings. But "DJ's" ... once a "cost
cutting measure" (for those who could not afford live bands)... are now
a "preference" among the 20-something crowd. Why? They have lost
the ability to appreciate live music... because they have never experienced
it! What we're left with is a sterile, "mechanical" experience where
once existed the most vibrant, humane and civil expression of personal
interaction in the universe: live music!

I have been
on a personal crusade over the last few years to introduce as much live music
as I can muster in my part time in as many venues as I can crack open.
In the course of doing this, I've sponsored my own groups in restaurants and
lounges in the northern New Jersey area, and also promoted other musicians.
I've persuaded restaurants to run series with jazz musicians, put groups into
lounges, promoted locally, and run ads on WBGO. I've experienced some long
term and short term successes - and couple of flops. Nevertheless, I
believe THIS should be the crusade of all musicians - and all those who love
and appreciate music. I've got my own ideas... I would love to hear
yours (and I'm sure other musicians would as well).

OK..thats stuff we might agree on. Now for the
controversy....

Marvin: My problem is seeing
a world that is so opposite to the world in which I grew up. Or maybe it is
my perception that the world was so different when I was growing up.

Dave: I say this over and
over again to my kids. Some things have changed for the better -
communications, some progress with race relations, etc. But the slow and
steady erosion of a civil society, that seems to relate closely with erosion
of freedom and the expansion of government,... is
very troubling... I tell my kids that I won't lie to them: I grew up in
a free society, but I really don't believe they are as lucky. And I believe
it will get worse.

Marvin: I remember a world
in which people were civil to one another, a world in which people actually
cared for one another. I cant feel that in our
society today or in the world as a whole.

Dave: I believe that as you
curtail freedom, curtail the need (and opportunity) for individual initiative,..and attempt to
eliminate RISK ... while increasing reliance on a centralized "one stop
shopping, cradle to grave government"... that it breeds animosity,
divisiveness and drives civility - and HOPE - into the ground.. partly because it eliminates the need for US... as
individuals, and good neighbors to voluntarily care for each other.
"Someone else" is going to do it. Why should I get involved"
is the attitude.

OK.
Getting off my soapbox...

Best,Dave Arndt

Marty
Erickson was for twenty-six years principal tuba with the U. S. Navy Band in
Washington, DC. Marty currently teaches the tuba-euphonium studio and directs
the tuba-euphonium ensemble and brass choir at Lawrence University in
Appleton, Wisconsin, as well as serving as tubist
with Millennium Brass and the Brass Band of Battle Creek. He also teaches the
tuba-euphonium studio at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Marty has two
current CDs - Smile (upon which I had the pleasure of playing) and My
Very Good Friend with pianist John Sheridan. Soon to be released is a new
CD in duo with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. You can learn more about Marty
Erickson at his Website: www.martytuba.com.

Thanks
Marvin,

Great reading
and you are so right on target with respects to feelings about trying to make
money. People who do not understand the satisfaction of a greatcollaboration
with other musicians you love and respect, wonderfularrangements,
etc. will never get the other part. I think we make as much as we can when we
can, hoping it may be enough to provide some money for another opportunity to
perform, to share, to interact, and mostly, to continue the learning process.

Thanks for
your thoughts and for refusing to be pigeon-holed into convenient
"Media-Slots." It is a bit ironic to me that many think of me as
"the jazz tuba player." While I love it and enjoy the opportunities
those skills have given me to share the stage and recording booth with
world-class players, that activity represents only a small percentage of what
I do as a musician; teaching, brass quintet, orchestra, brass choir, brass
bands, recording, playing with community groups, touring around the world, etc.
etc.

Thanks for
representing THAT side of our musicianship; the daily practice--it doesn't
ALL come naturally as many think. Many fine players give up on their dreams
or accept the "Slot." They play well, sound fine, and all of that.
The people who continue to believe, to create, to stay the course through
LOTS of roadblocks have earned my unswerving respect. It takes courage in any
field to carry a passion to conclusion; dodging the pitfalls and economic
issues, and keep those creative juices flowing. Will all of our work be peak,
creative, artistic opportunities--probably not for some time.
But, we CAN work with integrity with vision and realize it's
all part of a process. Did I love all the music I've done--no, but it may
have provided that meeting with another caring musician, and THAT was
worthwhile!

The famous
actor Sir Anthony Hopkins was asked by an interviewer once (paraphrased):
"Why have you bothered to make some of these....well.....not so grand
movies?" His straightforward answer was: "It is what I do. I am an
actor. I work. Much of this work keeps my skills alive for the truly creative
things I love." That's not exactly the quote, but after a one-hour
interview, it touched something in me. Playing is a privilege.

More later
and thanks again Marvin,

Marty
Erickson

Charlie Bertini began playing the trumpet at age nine in
Cortland, NY, active in marching band, concert band, orchestra, and chorus.
He started his own dance band in the ninth grade and at age 19 joined the
Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros Circus, touring for six years as first trumpeter and
later as musical director and eventually relocating in Florida. Charlie is a
very versatile musician and plays a variety of styles: Dixieland gigs, show
clubs, stage shows, and free-lance engagements, recordings and more. He
played four years at Circus World Theme Park as first trumpeter and conductor
then toured as musical director for the Ringling Bros & Barnum &
Bailey Circus. In demand as a first-call trumpeter he has backed up artists
such as Burt Bacharach, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mathis, and Ray Charles and
played on network TV specials for Walt Disney World, Ringling Bros Circus,
and several PBS music specials. Charlie has played in 45 states, Europe, and
China, and he has led workshops and lectures at high schools and universities
all over. Charlie is based in Orlando and, being one of the most versatile
and respected trumpeters in the industry, enjoys a variety of musical
settings. He writes:

Marvin, I
certainly share in your frustration over the state of things in the world,
but you know, youth can be very inspiring sometimes.

In a recent
interview at a jazz fest, the reporter was asking musicians in the break room
about the state of jazz and music in general. All of the seasoned musicians
who sat with her pissed and moaned about how it used to be and how it will
never be the same, blah, blah, blah.

Then she
asked me, and I said that I was exuberant about the future of jazz in our
society. Sure, the venues and opportunities have changed and diminished, but
the internet has captured youths' attention. What better way to learn,
explore, share ideas, watch the masters, study them on youtube,
etc.

Jazz
education has never been more prevalent in our society than now, and young
players will ALWAYS find a way to express their creativity, with or without
jazz clubs or big band buses. When the "older" guys stop talking to
the kids, then there is a problem, but I think that's up to us to continue to
do, like you and so many others.

So, why not
talk about the guys who are doing that, passing knowledge on to younger
players. There are tons of band camps where this is taking place. Bill
Allred, John Allred, Terry Myers, Eddie Metz, and countless others teach each
summer in these camps. I just came from a concert in Gainesville where the
Gordon Goodwin band camp had taken place for a week. Five big bands of KIDS
led by Gordon, Wayne Bergeron, Andy Martin, Sal Lozano, and Bernie Dresel. These kids were awesome, and they got to work
with these LA greats for a whole week!

You, Bill
Mays, Richard Drexler, Jeff Rupert, and probably gobs of others are out
there, doing it for the youth and the future of jazz. Nobody said it was
easy, but it is great that so many seasoned artists are passing on knowledge.

And don't
forget (between you and me), no matter how many jazz players the schools
produce, 80% of them will not be very good, and only a few will rise to the
top, just LIKE ANY OTHER BUSINESS, AND JUST LIKE THE GOOD OLD DAYS. And even
some of those will self destruct, once again, like
any other chosen occupation.

Anyway, don't
give up hope, and keep doing the great and wonderful things you are doing for
music in general. Hope this helps you find some positive energy and topics
for Cadenzas.

Sincerely,Charlie

Cadenzas - Edition XXVIII

Common Courtesy

New Management

Jim Vedda
is a veteran saxophone and woodwind player of 40 years. Originally from
Cleveland, Ohio, he and his brother led their own band in the 70s and early 80s.
He has performed in jazz ensembles around the country and currently resides
in Alexandria, Virginia. His work involves policy research and analysis for
space programs at NASA, the Defense Department, and other government
agencies, which explains his acquiring a Ph.D. in political science instead
of music. In addition to playing music, he reviews jazz CDs, with the goal of
being the best jazz reviewer on Amazon.com. You can check out his reviews at Amazon.com:
Profile for James A. Vedda. He writes:

Marvin,

Thanks for
writing the latest edition of Cadenzas. Yes, I read the whole thing.
I'm glad you had such positive experiences with the students you met on your
recent travels. There may be hope for our favorite art form.

Regarding
your piece on common courtesy, I understand your feelings. Email is a
wonderful and convenient way to stay connected, and also a great way to
ignore people (intentionally or not). It's a superb tool for making people
more productive, but only if they're disciplined andorganized. Those
who aren't, quickly become overwhelmed. It amazes me how many people have
inboxes with dozens -- or even hundreds -- of unread messages, and that
number never gets any smaller. I don't believe in working like that. At the
end of each business day, it's rare that I have any unread messages.

One of the
things I figured out a long time ago is that some people are really good at
responding to email, but really lousy at responding to phone calls. Other
people are just the opposite. The trick is sorting out who fits in which
category, and remembering to use the right method to contact them. (I try to
be responsive to both methods, but I'm probably a bit better with email than
with phone calls.)

Your
discussion of courtesy didn't address the worst offenders: people with
Blackberries and other such devices. The truly addicted ones will ignore you
when they're standing right next to you, and you're trying to have a
conversation. Such people can't stay focused. Personally, I prefer to pay
attention when I'm at a meeting, attending a seminar, at lunch with friends,
on the phone, etc. I agree with the headline of a newspaper article I saw a
couple of years ago (I believe it was in the Wall Street Journal):
"Multi-tasking Makes You Stupid."

I don't have
a Blackberry, even though most of my co-workers and business acquaintances
do. Aside from the rudeness factor, I don't believe in being on call 24 hours
a day. I'm not a medical doctor or a first responder. I need to read and
listen and think and write without being constantly interrupted or else I
won't do my best work in the most efficient manner. I have a cell phone
that's capable of linking to the Internet, but I don't subscribe to the
$15-per-month Internet connection because I'd never use it. My cell phone is
only on when I really need it, not all day long.

Another pet
peeve is call waiting. I can see why this would be
useful for businesses, but why do so many people have it on their home
phones? I suppose there are some valid reasons, but my observation has been
that it's almost always used like this: "Hang on,
I'm going to put you on hold. I've got another call coming in that may be
moreimportant than
you."

As I said, I
understand your feelings. But if you've never been ignored face-to-face by
someone mind-melding with their Blackberry, be aware that you may eventually
experience even higher levels of discourtesy. One can only hope that the
people perpetrating these acts will experience some type of techno-Darwinian
selection that will remove them from the gene pool.

Stay safe
& happy.Jim Vedda

Don Sipe is a graduate of the Eastman School and a
professional trumpet player for 25 years. He was the Principal Trumpet of the
Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra and served as the Acting Associate Principal
Trumpet of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He has performed with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass Ensemble, the Chicago Brass Quintet, the
Milwaukee Brass Quintet, Present Music, the Fulcrum Point New Music Ensemble,
and the Summit Brass. His arrangements for brass quintet have been played by
many brass quintets including Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet. Over
the last 15 years Don has worked simultaneously as an artist manager and
producer with his company Omicron Artist Mgt., Inc. At the height of this
management business he represented a roster of 25 clients, mostly conductors
and soloists to symphony orchestras but also chamber music groups and jazz
groups to presenters of all types. Over the last few years he has focused on
his first love, the trumpet, though still pursues various entrepreneurial
projects as time allows.

[For the
record, I was Marvin's manager for a period of about 5 years in the late 90s
and early 00s. He is without a doubt one of the best musicians I had the
privilege of working with in this capacity. Though we have moved on from this
relationship, we continue to be good friends. - D. S.]

Don
writes:

Dear Marvin,

I was happy
to see you mention in Cadenzas XVIII your new manager Jay Nachowitz and describe some of the important qualities in
a excellent manager.
Having been there and done that, so to speak, I wanted to add a few
observations which I hope will be useful for younger players and those
molding younger players.

Most
musicians do not learn enough about music management and how it relates to
the individual artist. We have all heard horror stories about managers, who
in some minds rate just above lawyers and used-car salesmen. However, the
vast majority of managers are decent people trying to do a job. Finding the
right person to work with as you build your career is very important.

Inherently, the
business side of music is not as interesting as music
itself, and let's face it, there are only so many hours in the day.
But given how much time we spend crafting our art, doesn't it make sense to
do what is necessary to make a living at it and bring it to the widest
possible audience?

Understanding
of the music business is not emphasized in most music schools. In fact, at
times I have run into hostility on the part of applied faculty at major
conservatories when it comes to discussing management, the union, or
commercialism of any kind. Fortunately, many programs have been developed
over the last decade that allow a person to double major in business and
music, major in arts management, or simply learn more about the music
business. Unfortunately, given the fast changing nature of the business,
unless the faculty is "actively working" or brings in people who
are, the course is basically history - which may not be useful.

With rare
exception, the musicians who are working - doing well, however you want to
express it - are those who have an understanding and interest in the business
aspects of their work. Whether they have management or not, their ability to
focus a certain amount of attention on business
is critical to their success. Furthermore, the work one does with a manager
is a partnership and requires active participation. Thinking "well, I
have management, the gigs will simply roll in," is unrealistic and
counterproductive.

What follows
are a few observations on the role of management and a few recommendations
for musicians.

***

Why do we
have management? Ideally, the manager has the skills to create demand for the
artist's work through marketing and PR, negotiate fees, execute contracts and
administrate the myriad details required for a musician's performance to be
successful. Also, there are venues/presenters who won't take a musician
seriously unless they have management or simply like working with a
professional manager. And then there's money. A manager can usually ask for
and get the best possible terms on your behalf. This allows you to have a
non-confrontational relationship with the presenter (buyer).

How to
structure management? Exclusive management means that one entity handles all
your work or a very large and clearly defined part of your work. They charge
expenses and take a commission which can be anywhere from 10-20% of gross or
an agreed upon net (minus travel, etc.). This is the "traditional"
arrangement.

Non-exclusive:
Essentially the same as above, except you have more than one entity working
on your behalf. The drawbacks: the buyer may not be sure who to contact, and
unless defined at the outset, the managers could disagree on who got which
gig. This only works well if the managers are divided into specific
well-defined genres or geographic divisions, i.e. a manager in Europe and one
in North America, or perhaps a manager for combo concerts and one for solo
orchestral engagements.

Manager works
for you. You pay for someone to do the marketing, PR, phone calls, emails,
etc. There is no commission. Most established managers will not work this
way, but it can work well for a chamber music group or small group jazz
ensemble that is willing to put in the time and effort. I recommend this
option when you are starting out and established managers are not (yet)
interested in working with you.

Before you
approach management, there are a lot of things you can do yourself or have
someone do for not a great deal of money. 1) Network and keep track of your
network with contact management software. 2) Look professional: have an
attractive website with audio, video, photos and useful information. If
necessary have complementary print materials. 3) Be nice and easy to deal
with. It doesn't cost anything to be nice. 4) Deliver! Be prepared and exceed
expectations in your playing.

Questions to
ask? The network and skills of the manager need to mesh with the network and
skills of the artist, so ask the following questions:

- Does the manager
have experience in your genre or area? An opera singer needs completely
different management than a jazz pianist.- Does the
manager have other artists similar to you? If you are a jazz pianist, and the
manager already has 5 jazz pianists, maybe you should find someone else.- Ask about
their network of contacts, how they market artists, how much time they have
for PR activities. Make sure they have enough time to take on another client.

Get in touch
with other artists on a roster; find out how things are going. And most
important, make sure you feel comfortable with this person. Trust is crucial,
not just when dealing with money but at all times. Try to meet in person
before entering into an agreement and while you don't need to be best friends,
you do need to have some sort of rapport, otherwise it's probably not going
to work.

***

Okay, that my
piece; I hope it is helpful in some small way. It's not "rocket
surgery" as Frank Caliendo likes to say, but
it is important if we want to connect with as wide an audience as possible
and make a living doing what we love.

Peace,Don Sipe

Bruce
Peterson grew up as an Army brat. He graduated from high school in Killeen,
Texas, in 1965 and earned his Bachelors Degree from Abilene Christian
University (ACU) in Abilene, Texas, in 1969. After teaching for a year, he
was drafted into the Army, first serving with the 1st Cavalry Band in Ft.
Hood, Texas and finishing his military service in Hawaii. While earning his Masters Degree, Bruce was the trumpet teacher at ACU, and
afterward settled in the Rio Grande Valley to teach in Harlingen, Texas, for
two years. He then left teaching to try other things, eventually moving to
Central Texas to build houses some 14 yrs ago.
Seven years later, he got a call from a former student who told him that he
had made a great difference in his life, and this led him back into teaching.
He writes:

Marvin,

I really
enjoyed reading this edition of Cadenzas. I especially was impressed
with "Common Courtesy". Cutting my teeth on the great Kenton era of
jazz, you were one of my 'trumpet' heroes. Having Don Owen as one of my
mentors gave us a link....but what I was impressed with, is that you wrote me
back. Recently I told you that I was doing a clinic on jazz improvisation at
TMEA. You sent me a wonderful essay about your thoughts. I just wanted to let
you know that it was a 'standing room only' occasion, and thanks to your
input, was very successful. One member of my performing group was Ron
Wilkins. If you ever have an opportunity to play with Ron, you need to take
advantage of it. He is a remarkable trombone player.

After being
out of teaching for over 20 years, I got back into it 6 years ago. My goals
have changed. I used to be about 1st divisions....now I'm about trying to
make a difference in kid's lives. I teach in Killeen, Tx....My
kids don't have the opportunity to take privately, and a lot of their parents
are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. But my middle school program is 230
strong and we do okay..and
have lots of fun.

I am with you
on "Common Courtesy"....I even forwarded to my brother, who is an
English Professor at a University. It is so easy to be courteous
electronically, but we also need to do it in teaching. Here's an example of
what I'm talking about: I might have a kid who comes to me while I'm very
busy and wants to tell me something. My thought is "Go away kid. You
have no idea of how busy I am"...But my reaction is: "What is it,
sweetie"....After all, it may be the only interaction this kid has with
a caring adult all day. You struck a chord with this topic.

Thanks,
Marvin,Bruce

Jim
Ferguson is vocalist and bassist who has worked with
everyone! Among the people with whom he has worked are Nat Adderly, Mose Allison, Gene Bertoncini, Eddie Daniels, Urbie
Green, Benny Goodman, StephaneGrappelli,
Jimmy Heath, Al Jarreau, Marian McPartland,
Jay McShann, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Bucky and John Pizzarelli, just to name a few. Jim has been featured on
NPRs Morning Edition,
Marian McPartlandsPiano Jazz,Jazz Profiles
with Nancy Wilson, and American Popular
Singer with Eileen Farrell. He currently serves as a
National Vice-president of the American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists (AFTRA) and is on the Board of Directors of the International Society
of Bassists. Jim currently teaches jazz voice and double bass at Middle
Tennessee State University and has participated in numerous clinics and
workshops in the U.S. and abroad. He holds a Master of Music degree in Jazz
Studies and Performance from the University of South Carolina and has three
recordings under his own name including two critically acclaimed quartet CDs
- his latest, in duo with renowned guitarist, Mundell
Lowe. He writes:

Hi Marvin,As always, I
enjoyed reading this issue of Cadenzas. Im
writing because, unlike your recent experiences with education, my colleagues
and I are facing an immediate crisis in Middle Tennessee. Tennessee is a
beautiful state, as you know from your personal history here. Unfortunately,
we operate on a budget funded mostly by sales tax. With the recent decline in
retail and the residual effects of the Federal cuts over eight years to state
funding, our Governor Bredesen has been forced to
impose budget cuts across the board. Middle Tennessee State University has a
worst case scenario of having to eliminate nineteen million dollars from our
operating budget. Its possible, were told, that the
stimulus package could reduce that to twelve million.

The president
of the school established an Oversight Steering Committee tasked with
identifying and recommending cuts in everything from operating, non-academic
areas to actual degree programs and faculty. Each department head was
required to assign values to the majors in his school from most important, mid level important, least important, based
on the mission statement of the department. Im told that our
mission statement is very Music Ed oriented. Needless to say, this must have
been a thankless task.

The first
piece of bad news we got several weeks ago is that the school is seriously
considering elimination of our 40 year old 24-7 jazz station, WMOT, a valued
treasure in MiddleTennessee and a
serious contributor to musical diversity in the Nashville and Mid State
areas. These developments have been difficult enough to watch. On Monday, the
OSC published its final recommendations
on the MTSU.org website. Listed in the programs recommended for elimination
from the Music School are our BM and MM in Jazz Studies and our
Theory/Composition degrees. Coupled with the proposed demise of WMOT, well
pretty much be left with country, rock, and hip-hop radio formats, with the
sole exception of WPLN, our mostly classical public radio station in
Nashville and *no* jazz degree programs in Middle Tennessee and
Nashville, Music City, USA. Since I know youre
very aware of our music school and our jazz station, Im
assuming youd want to know what were
facing. None of it is carved in stone, but from what Im
told, its not looking good. I dont
envy the folks on these committees or blame them for the final decisions.
Currently, Tennessees legislature is hard pressed to make ends
meet, but some of these issues have been much longer in the making. Theyve
not properly funded higher education for decades. For instance, there hasnt
been an adjunct pay raise under the Tennessee Board of Regents in the eleven
years Ive been a faculty member, and Im
told its been that way since the early 90s.
Theres no moral justification for that policy, just
financial convenience. Im sure the custodial
staff and kitchen help have all gotten raises in that time period. But I
digress easily, as you can see. Our current focus must be on saving our jazz
majors and our jazz radio station.

I hope you
continue to have positive experiences in your educational endeavors and that
you regularly report the good and the bad. It helps me believe there may be
more out there than our current reality.

Lew Polsgrove, as a teenager, played saxophone in several big
bands around Galveston, Texas, his home town. He also attended the University
of North Texas, playing tenor for a couple of years in one of the lab bands.
After a 25-year hiatus pursuing a professional career in psychology and an
academic career in special education (children's emotional and behavioral
disorders), Lew returned to playing. He began playing with a blues band
around Bloomington, Indiana, and also co-founded the Two-Five-One Trio which
appears regularly at various Bloomington venues. Lew has also been involved
with Jazz from Bloomington
serving as Treasurer and Chair of the Funding and Development Chair. He
writes:

Thanks for
sharing your thoughts again, Marvin. Some of us read and appreciate
them. I found Mr. Paulnack's address
particularly meaningful. Several of the local jazz venues have closed
recently due to the economic downturn, and I've asked myself some of the same
questions as he. But...at our last gig at TuttoBenne's here in town a large racially diverse group
came in about an hour before the end. They were clapping and whooping
after every tune and solo, dancing, and asking for encores [!]. That's
the way it used to be and should be always, right? Well, here's the
most incredible part: They were Jehovah Witnesses
!

While your
cosmopolitan experiences clearly eclipse ours, it's important for all jazz
musicians to keep in mind that the long hours we spend shedding are not about
making bread, but learning to express more fully our inner human
spirits. Sharing this wonderful music brings joy to others, and it can
happen anywhere-- in Yakima, Moscow, or Bloomington.

Keep it
alive,Lew

Joe Lowe
is native Texan. He graduated with degrees in business and mathematics from
the University of North Texas in 1961, then entered
the U.S. Navy serving four years in intelligence and spending time aboard
aircraft carriers. Joes entire career was in
the investment business, operating firms in New York, Chicago, Columbus, and
lastly, San Francisco, where he and wife Judy, a native Minnesotan, raised
their son and daughter. Joe retired in 1998, moving to San Diego where he and
Judy golf, sail, travel, and enjoy live jazz in Southern California. Joe has
been collecting jazz recordings since 1954. He writes:

It seems to
me that the electronic age has caused many of the problems in our society by
eliminating much of our daily personal eyeball to eyeball
communications with other humans. As Clint said, what we have here is a failure
to communicate!

It all
started with personal computers in the 1980s when we learned to be gamers
in our homes (remember Pong) and strap Sony Walkmans
on our ears when we left home. Thats when many first
started to find the isolation and privacy of electronics more attractive than
traditional live entertainment forms with others. Thus began our journey to
look inward for our stimulation and interaction.

Next,
businesses began to use computers, not just in their internal data
centers, but on the other end of an 800 number and
later all their phones (Touch 1 for English,
Touch 2 for your balance, Touch 3 to pay your bill, etc.). Then, in the 1990s
came laptops and cell phones that permitted employees to communicate 24/7
with headquarters. Cells and iPods proliferated our
daily lives in planes, autos, restaurants, everywhere! Sales personnel no
longer talked to their boss, but a server
via modems. We almost never got to speak to another human, even when we
dialed their personal number... we got their machine
and left a recording. Then in the 2000s, we advanced
to smart phones, voice recognition software and computer generated voices,
web sites to make purchases (even groceries) using our user
names and passwords,
ATMs and home banking even made us forget what our neighborhood bankers
looked like. About the only human beings many of us ever saw wore uniforms
reading FedEx and UPS!

Is it any
wonder that America has lost much of our ability to speak and reason with one
another ... to resolve issues, to deal with problems (ours or theirs) in a
civil, respectful manner? Sure, our communications
superhighway was faster and more structured, but did it
improve our lives and produce any satisfaction or joy in the process. You
tell me!

The news just
this month reported one tragedy where a young Alabama youth murdered his
entire family of five and another youth in Germany murdered nine or ten
classmates. Its clear that there wasnt
much interpersonal communicating skill on display here.

In my
judgment, all these sophisticated communication tools have not improved our
personal lives nor our society. We isolate in the day with cells and iPods and
rush home to out Nintendos and X Boxes. Many,
particularly the young who grew up in our Personal Digital
Device society, have learned to isolate and avoid
dealing with reality by exposing themselves to another unsafe
human. It has become an addiction to many.... its
not about a necessary cell call or listening to the latest music, podcast or
book on an iPod... its a flee from reality
into the safe harbor of isolation. A return to the warm companion that is
always there for them... that is never in a bad mood nor judgmental... yes,
their very best friend... their electronic womb!

Its
clear to me that many of our violent crimes rest upon a foundation of people
just not knowing how to talk to one another and peacefully solve issues... everyday we see violence in our schools, on the freeway,
and even family members killing one another over matters that amount to
practically nothing.

Remember
before the 1990s when almost everyone returned phone calls, because we had no
voice mail, email or web sites? Real live humans answered their phones. Then
voice mail arrived on the scene and we learned a new game: Telephone
Tag! Next came email and we were off and running
in the electronic age! Around the mid 1990s I
noticed that many of my clients no longer returned my phone calls..... just ignored them.... and over a cocktail my competitors
said it was happening to them, too, not just me.

Toll free 800
numbers with computer voices are now the norm... I called my bank last week
and got eight different computer messages prompting a like number of keypad
entries before I finally got a human being. I get my investment advice from
my mutual funds web site, bank on the net and Amazon has
replaced my neighborhood merchant.

Yes, all
these electronic devices do make our lives easier and more convenient, but
they are slowly and insidiously destroying the humanity in our daily lives.
How do we rebuild common courtesy in our society when we interface throughout
our daily lives with laptops, Smartphones, iPods, voice mails, web sites? I
dont have a clue. My guess is that well
continue to use more and more electronics in our lives and just learn to
accept the downside.

It reminds me
of the old story about the frog that was placed in cold water on a stove and
slowly boiled to death because it never detected any sudden change in the
temperature. Are we going to be smart enough to feel the same heat buildup in
the computer chip stuck in our ear or resting on our lap? You tell me!

Bruce
Collier - is an old friend from days when I was at North Texas and who was
involved in the recording industry at that time. He is now involved in
communications, but maintains a strong interest in music, particularly Jazz.
He writes:

Marvin,

As incomplete
as usual but still motivated to respond, herewith am I:

1.
Communication. Absolutely agree with you and there are no boundaries! I like
to say,  tell me yes, no, or maybe, but tell me
something!. BTW you are always
good about a response. Is this an age-related disease?

2. Regarding that
and other weirdness of todays world, I like to say
 and forgive if I repeat myself 
we seem to be in a constant state of dumbing down. How about some dumbing
up for a change? If we have to dumb, lets
go up.

3. Perhaps
there is too little of the good news and hopeful news that does happen all
the time and instead myopic focus on negatives. With so much emphasis on
sports or other less educated people skills that earn so much misplaced
revenue, I believe it is somewhat of a miracle to reach citizens of tomorrow
as to the importance of skills that will truly benefit society. Peace Corps?
That really sounds stupid.

4. Last but
not least, I always hope to put the age issue,
which is my place in life these days, in perspective. And just when I think Im
winning, just when I think Ive found a better way
to pass on a little experience without sounding like a lecturer someone
accuses me of playing that card (I never thought I would play)!

5. Thanks as
usual for your discipline in transferring your thoughts to print!

Stay well,Bruce

Cadenzas - Edition XXV

Burt Collins - Two Remembrances

Mr. Armstrong and Me

When I Was Your Age . . . .

Speaking Out

[Editor's
note: Since most of the respondents to Cadenzas - Edition XXV have referred
to more than one of the four articles, I have not listed their responses
categorically to each individual article, but have ordered them according
when each response was received.]

Jerry Ascione is a graduate of the excellent Youngstown State
University program, working under Tony Leonardi,
Bill Slocum, and Bob Fleming. His instruments are French horn and piano,
although his 30+ year career in the U.S. Navy Band in Washington has led him
to focus more on the piano and writing. Jerry was for eleven years leader of
the Navy Jazz band, the Commodores, but in the last ten or more years has been working as piano soloist with the Navy Concert
Band and with smaller ensembles. He also is first call solo pianist for every
major function held by the Secretary of the Navy, the CNO and other of the higher
ups in that service. Jerry is an excellent
arranger and does a great deal of writing for the Navy Concert Band; he also
arranges for me and has contributed three of the most sensitive pieces in my
symphonic library. Jerry is "family," a great cook, and shares my
love of excellent wines! He writes:

Dear Marvin,

I want to
address two articles in Cadenzas
Edition XXV. First, Mike MethenysWhen I Was Your Age.
and your article, Speaking Out. Both of these
articles have everything to do with being a mentor and the effects thereof.
That having been said:

Mr. Metheny speaks eloquently and accurately of doing
everything he can to pass the torch to keep our beloved
art form alive. The moment we say when I was your age
to our children, students or a young audience, we are passing
the torch; were doing what ever we can to mentor young people. Sometimes its
tough to get anyone to grab hold of that torch, but we never relent. Marvin,
you told me great stories about people like Bernie Glow, Snooky
Young, Ernie Royal and many others who took you into their fold to mentor
you. Further, I related to you the great experiences of having Snooky Young, Milt Hinton and others as guest artists
with the Navy Band Commodores and their words to me about how
things used to be. They didnt do that just to make
idle conversation. They believed, rightly so, that their experiences and
those of others were and will always be vital to the educational process.

In February,
1968, two friends and I (we were about 16 years old) went to hear Duke
Ellingtons band in my hometown of New Castle, PA.
Although bitterly cold and snowing heavily, he didnt
cancel the gig but played two full sets for those of us who braved the
elements. We struck up a conversation with drummer Rufus Jones, who at the
end of the first set said, Come on back after the
concert and Ill introduce you guys to the Duke.
Duke came out of the dressing room looking really tired, but smiling and said
Boys, I have 15 minutes till the bus leaves.
Lets talk. Not knowing what to
say, we asked a few tentative questions and Duke then showered us with
stories about what it was like to be on the road, different musicians, how he
started on piano and of course the necessity of diligent practice. He could
have told Rufus Jones to say to us, thanks for coming to
the concert, good night. He could have, but he
didnt. The torch was passed.

I stated
earlier that both articles were about being a mentor. Do we choose to be a
mentor to someone? The answer is no. People choose, us to be their mentors
whether as a conscious decision or otherwise. Why? Because they see those
characteristics in us they feel will benefit them on a successful journey in
life and Im not speaking solely about vocation. But,
even if we arent chosen to be a mentor, were
still a role model and as such, without choice, we purvey our idiosyncratic
behavior, beneficial or destructive, to everyone with whom we come in
contact. I dont remember who offered this gem of wisdom to
me, but, upon learning that I was to become a father, the comment was, What
you say to your children is important. How you act in front of them is really
important.

Marvin, I use
the above paragraph to address your concern that many of us dont
express ourselves via your column. Consider this: We read Cadenzas
because we enjoy reading about the different musicians with whom youve
worked, gigs that you play, etc. But more than that, we have a great respect
for you. You have certainly been a most positive role model for many of us
and indeed a mentor. So what does all of that mean
except to sound like Im offering empty flattery? It means that just
like your airport incident, many people have been empowered by your words AND
by your actions to speak out in a variety of arenas. Much of change, I
believe, starts with a single event and someone addressing it one on one.
This means stating concerns over the state of education while were
doing clinics, convincing parents to challenge the lack of money allocated to
the arts in public schools, even when your children have long graduated,
writing letters to public officials over increasing crime and a plethora of
other incidents that many are reluctant to address. Still, why do we not use
your column as a sounding board? The truth is, I cant
give you an answer that is commensurate with your passion for standing up for
the rights that we have but dont exercise; rights
that others want and are willing to risk all to have. We, as role models and
mentors probably wont see the fruits of our efforts right away.
But, Im going to tell you to believe that it is
happening. I see it, I believe it.

Jerry Ascione

John L.
Worley Jr. is a trumpet and flugelhorn artist who has been a member of many
of the San Francisco Bay Area's creative music ensembles for last 25 plus
years. John is the owner of Dancing Sumo Records and the leader of WorlView, which made its debut in 2004 at the San Jose
Jazz Festival and recently played at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2006. John
is on the faculty of Jazz Goes To College,
a summer camp sponsored by the San Jose Jazz Society and, the Stanford Jazz
Workshop and is a past faculty member of San Francisco State University. He
is also a much sought-after clinician. You can learn more about John at: www.johnworley.com. He writes:

Hi Marvin,

I hope this
email finds you in good health and spirits. I have just read your latest
Cadenzas and found it moving in many ways. I was never fortunate to meet or
hear Burt Collins. The first time I was made aware of him was in the 70s
when I heard the recording you mentioned of Duke Pearson's with Burt taking
that marvelous solo. In fact, it was around the same time I heard you play on
a recording of Pat Williams. Both of you played with a fluidity and ease to
be admired and striven for. While it has been a joy to have met and gotten to
know you, it saddens me that I'll never get that chance with Burt and many
others of that generation.

When I give
clinics, I ask the students some of the same questions Mike Metheny does and yes, some of those answers might require
more than one pitcher of beer, but, like his band director said, play
(or teach) to the one person who gets it. I find that the ones
who are informed have some depth in the knowledge of players, musicality, and
desire to learn more. Sadly, the numbers seem to be shrinking year after
year. Maybe someone needs to create a type of X-Box game to get it into the
hands and minds of a new generation . . . .

Which leads
me to speaking out: Most folks don't. Plain and simple. There is much fear of
reprisals and/or of the responsibility of carrying the burden(s) that their
feelings or possible actions will bring about. We all have to have take responsibility to make our voices heard whether we
agree or disagree with what's happening around us. Ignorance is not bliss . .
. it's a tool used by many to take away our freedoms for their own personal
gains. Thank you, Marvin, for speaking out and bringing this forum for
everyone to see and participate in.

I look
forward to seeing and hearing you play in the near
future, my friend. Be well and keep the faith.

Peace,John Worley

John
Daniel has over 20 years experience, teaching
college at Abilene Christian University and Penn State University; he began
teaching at Lawrence Conservatory in Appleton, WI September, 2002. He has
played as a sub on Broadway, with dozens of symphony orchestras, and appeared
as a soloist in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and at numerous
universities. He writes:

Marvin,

In response
to "Speaking Out".

Without
necessarily being entirely conscious of the process, we humans are constantly
negotiating with one another about reality, truth, morality, and for lack of
a better term: social conscience. As young children, our concept
of reality is vague and flexible. Authority figures who
are responsible for our very survival begin to shape and define our concepts
of reality into something closer to a singular concept of reality, one
specifically designed to meet the needs of life on earth, perhaps for a
specific time and place. As teenagers, we are virtually obsessed with
definitions of reality as defined by our peer group. We know enough to know
our parents don't have all the answers, and that leaves us feeling
vulnerable. We look to our peers for support and guidance even though (or
because) they are in the same boat.

Science has
been in a centuries-long pursuit of defining reality as if it is a fixed
entity. The results of this pursuit are all around us, so we must assume that
reality is observable and predictable. But science, especially subatomic
particle theory, has also advanced to the point of understanding reality to
be a reflection of the observer. There is a great book, The
Hidden Messages in Water, by MasuroEmoto which simply shows
crystals formed by water under a variety of conditions. These photographs of
water crystals seem to indicate that water responds to human emotions,
thoughts, and intentions. They certainly respond to music. The
Secret Life of Plants was another book indicating the same phenomenon.

Reality is
constantly being formed as a result of the interplay of our collective
thoughts and intentions. We know this to be true, but we do not know to what
degree. Politics is the most obvious and verbal aspect of this interplay. Is
it the most powerful? In the short run, so it seems. Many religious
people throughout the centuries behave as if they believe politics to have
more power than religion. As a musician, I believe music to often
be more powerful than either politics or religion. Music can describe a
multidimensional universe to most of humanity much better than math or
Einstein. I know that most weddings, funerals or ceremonies of any kind lack
emotional and spiritual focus without the right musical intentions.

Simply put,
as artists we have an opportunity to affect human behavior, if not effect
reality directly. I maintain that this happens with or without our conscious
participation! I also maintain that much of the negotiation
for social conscience that Ive described is nothing
more than a reflection of the fear that so many people have in life itself.
So much of the robustness of political discourse is nothing more than people
trying to insure their own needs get met, even if it is at the expense of
others, as if reality has no investment in
us as individuals. FDR said so much when he said we
have nothing to fear but fear itself.

I think this
country is at a crossroads. I think our place in western civilization is
being written at this moment. Is this country about freedom?,
the pursuit of happiness?, a structure of government (democracy) designed to
maximize the potential of every individual? Or is our legacy, as our critics
say, simply about money and greed. I dont necessarily equate
capitalism with greed, but history might. I can certainly see that it is
often inspired by fear.

Should we
speak out? Should we vote? Should we march in rallies? Of course we should.
But know that the real battle isnt for votes, its
for social conscience, and as musicians we have unique abilities. We can
describe any form of love we can imagine with our music. We can bring to mind
any aspect of our personal reality that we think could be beneficial to
others.

I recently
completed my training to be a Reiki Master. When I asked my Reiki teacher
about a potential career change she was very clear. Music and teaching are
very noble pursuits. Anyone can learn to be a Reiki Master. Dont
give up your uniqueness, nurture it. Make your uniqueness a force of nature
but align it with your highest and best intentions.

All the best,John

Dr. Robert
Kase has a wide background both as a performer and
educator. He presently serves as Chair of the Department of Music and
Professor of Trumpet at the University of WisconsinStevens
Point and is a regular clinician at schools and universities around the
world. He is an international trumpet artist who is in constant demand in
both jazz and classical ensembles. He has performed solo tours of Sweden,
Norway, England, Germany, France, Russia, Switzerland, Canada, and across the
USA. As a recording artist he has performed on more than 200
recording projects, including four solo jazz recordings with his own quintet.
His latest CD entitled Those Paris Nights
for the Altenburgh Jazz recording
label. He appears regularly at International Jazz Festivals and
as trumpet soloist with symphony orchestras and concert bands. He
writes:

Marvin:

Bravo! I
agree with your point completely. However, you are always one to be assertive
in your speaking out. There is a large difference between being assertive and
being aggressive. Your scenario is one of assertiveness. State your mind and
explain your plight and if the manager really cares about his customers, he
will take care of things, as he did for you. I have also seen many times
people who want what they want, when they want it, regardless of whether or
not anyone can give it to them. They make a fool of themselves and are
arrogant and not the least bit understanding when the answer to their query
happens to be, I am sorry, we can't do that.

The world is
full of very rude and aggressive people who ruin it for everyone else who
simply want to speak out, but are afraid they will
be grouped in with these very obnoxious people. I have seen tantrums,
swearing, threats and even worse from people who don't get their way. While I
know your article was about speaking up and simply being assertive about what
is right, sometimes it isn't worth the hassle, and sometimes it is depending
on what is at stake.

Keep up the
good work Marv. I love your cadenzas (both kinds).

Bob

Kenny
Berger - is a marvelous Jazz baritone saxophone player as well as a great doubler on bass clarinet and bassoon. He is one of the
in-demand musicians in NYC and plays with so many of the most important names
in Jazz. He writes:

Hi
Marvin:

I just
finished reading Cadenzas XXV and found it to be one of the most interesting
and thought-provoking issues yet. In fact, I feel as though I am responding
to three different articles at once. First, I would like to add my two cents
worth in appreciation of Burt Collins. I had the honor of playing alongside
Burt in both the Lee KonitzNonet
and the David Matthews big band back in the late 70's, as well as on studio
dates and a few hits with Duke Pearson's band. To my mind Burt was the most
underrated jazz trumpeter in the business and a warm, generous
man with a great sense of humor.

Mike
Matheny's article hit home for me due to a similar experience I had just this
past week. For the past few years I have taught a couple days a week at a
private school, running three jazz bands. During a recent class devoted
exclusively to listening, it dawned on me that not only was I charged with
the responsibility of exposing them to the music of the jazz greats, but I
first needed to teach them how to listen - period. To this generation of
students, the idea of listening to an entire seven-minute long track with
just the music happening and nothing to look at is tantamount to asking them
to read War and Peace in one sitting. As
you know Marvin, mincing words is not one of my strong points, so I explained
to them that the ability to listen to a piece of music for more than two
minutes and without any sort of visual enhancement is just as vital in
preventing them from growing up to be idiots as is paying attention in
English or math class. I went on to explain how the mass media and a certain
political party have very strongly vested interests in making sure that they
each grow up with the concentration span of a fruit fly and that engaged
listening is one of the prime antidotes to this. Some of them got it and some
of them didn't, but at least they heard someone say it.

Your views on
speaking out are particularly relevant to today's jazz scene, what with the
fear that so many musicians feel due to the scarcity of work combined with
the sort of McCarthyism that is rampant in parts of academia and institutions
like The House Un-American Jazz Activities Committee at Lincoln Center. I
personally choose not to demean myself by being afraid to speak my mind, but,
by the same token, I choose not to inflate my own importance by thinking that
the powers that be have nothing better to do than to take the timeto exact revenge
on me for disagreeing with them.

Finally, your
story at the airline counter perfectly illustrates an old saying: Thesqueaking wheel
gets the oil.

Hope I see
you soon.

Love, KB

Melvin
Gordy, like myself, was a John Haynie
student. He was among the first group that John taught upon coming to the
University of North Texas. Melvin, from the beginning, has been the Web
master and organizer of events that bring John's students together year after
year. Melvin has been flying since 1954, and was a pilot in the Civil Air
Patrol (USAF-AUX). He now enjoys a career as a building designer and also
teaches architectural and engineering drafting at Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, Texas. He
writes:

Marvin,

You note in Cadenzas:

"Someone,
responding recently to my urging my readers to participate, said that they
found Cadenzas sometimes a bit long, taking a good amount of time to get
through. I've thought about this and in this edition have tried for a bit
more brevity without losing the passion and substance I feel about what I
write. It will be interesting to discover your feelings."

My response
to the above:

I appreciate
your thoughts about articles being a bit long at times and how you've tried
to shorten them without losing their passion and substance. My feelings are
that you can't shorten some articles without losing something.

I find if I'm
short of time, I just print that article in question and read it later when I
have more time. Some things have to be read and re-read to get their full
meaning. To just read something thru at fast pace doesn't work for me.

My suggestion
to you is don't change anything; you've got a winner in your Cadenzas
as written.

Thanks,Melvin Gordy

Marvin Doc
Holladay was the baritone saxophonist on the Stan Kenton Orchestra during the
two years I was with the band. He currently lives and works with young
musicians in Cumbayα, Ecuador. After leaving Kentons
band, Marv played with a number of great bands, including the Duke Ellington
Alumni Band, and those of Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, and Woody Herman. He
was the original baritone player with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra
(1965-66). Marv did graduate studies at Yale and Wesleyan Universities and
taught sixteen years at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, as an
Associate Professor of Music, Director of Jazz Studies and resident
Ethnomusicologist, and adjunct professor to the International Studies
Department. He is now a Professor Emeritus of that Institution. He writes:

Yo! Marv,

This may well
come to you as a major surprise, and although you keep posting Cadenzas to
me regularly, I have never responded to your request for our collective
input.

Ive
decided, after reading your and Garnetts piece on Burt, that
maybe it is time for me to open up a main artery and bleed all over your Web
page.

There is a history behind my current residence, outside of the
US, in Cumbayα, Ecuador, which I do not need to go
into nor would it be appropriate to do so. Suffice it to say, we are living
here largely due to many of the reasons that I read in your rants about what
is, and has been, going on in the States, besides my old age retirement.

First, let me
get the decline of the essence of what jazz has been about and what remains
of that essence, as I see it, today

You and I
were very fortunate to have come into the business at the very tail end of
its greatest days; in fact, you were probably hanging on to the last hair
follicle of that tail. We have disagreed many times over our, respective,
evaluations of our experiences with Stan and Woody, which I still relish as
they were, and probably are, relevant to those personal experiences. I still
regret not having recorded, with you, those great charts that Don Sebesky wrote for us. C. T. and I did play them, once, on
a gig that we did at the old Village Gate. I just recently played them again,
here in Quito, with a former student of mine, Walt Szymanski, who came to
visit me and, subsequently, fell in love with this country.

What was the
standard by which ones command of the language was evaluated has
changed dramatically and not for the better, Im sorry to say. The
industry has set the criteria by which this is to be done by instituting
technical mastery and high energy, and aggressive expression as a substitute
for beauty, soulfulness, and elevation of the spirit. Those qualities were
the lodestone of jazz musicianship during both my formative years,which I found prevalent
during the earlier days of my professional career. In this regard, I have a
fond memory of your insistence that the Ray Charles band was the best band
out there, when you joined the Kenton band following your graduation from
NTS. Actually, I greatly appreciated that observation as those attributes
were precisely the qualities that were the hallmark of all the great bands of
the history of this music, Duke, Lunceford, Chick,
Lucky Millinder and later Dizzy, Q, Gil, D.
Pearson, etc., and continues today with orchestras that hardly anybody knows
exist because of that infamous criteria, previously mentioned.

As a player,
my claim to fame, if such exists, was my sound and the ability to lock into
any stylistic interpretation by putting a bottom on any sax section that I
was honored to be a part of. I dont put myself in the
category of player/soloist, even though many well-intended folks try to do so
[probably because of my age]. However, we were all moved by the irrepressible
impact of Ben Webster, Hawk, Roy Eldridge, Bird, and Diz,
etc., upon all of us in formulating our eventual expression. This was monumental
and came by association and not from a pedagogical formula which seems to
prevail at most of the institutional jazz programs around the country.

It used to be
that after a few notes or a couple of bars at most, we could all tell
immediately who was playing. Today, the young players, with a few notable
exceptions, all sound alike [the cookie-cutter syndrome], and it becomes a
guessing game as to who is playing or why. As I mentioned, there are a few
exceptions that I know about and probably a lot more that I dont
know about, since Ive been out the loop for a number of years
now. Chris Potter, Joshua Redman and Roy Hargrove stand out as shining
examples of the continuation of those qualities previously mentioned.
Fortunately for Chris, he was picked up, upon his arrival in the City, by Red
Rodney and the rest, as they say, is history so he was never influenced by
the pedagogical folks who proliferate the
institutions. Joshua had Dewey as his mentor, so how could he lose.

My second
point is that there is a great deal of interest here in Ecuador by young
musicians to learn about this music and, more importantly, what it takes to
make it expressive the way they hear it. My simplistic guidance for them has
been Its not the notes you
play, but the way you play those notes. I realize that it may
be an over-simplification of what its
all about, but it does encourage these young, aspiring, players to pay
attention to the basic essentials instead of following the guidance they get
from the abundance of printed materials explaining what jazz is and how to
play it. In addition, I would like to suggest to all who may be asked to
travel to other countries, around the world, as exponents of this unique art
form associated with the USA, to come prepared to leave as much as you can
during your brief visit. So many groups come here, and elsewhere, play a
concert, and essentially leave with having left an impression of see
how great we are, but without leaving any of the how
and the why is it great. The other shoe of
this rant is: So many, when given an opportunity to share with the local
folks, present such advanced permutations of the process that it might as
well be gibberish. The need is for the basics, with an emphasis on what the
music is about, not how to play like John Coltrane, or similar great modern
exponent. That might be relevant to a Master Class at a major university in
the US but not here. Think about where you are and listen to the performance
level of those to whom you will be speaking before formulating a
presentation.

Finally,
patterns and all their permutations, will not communicate the essence of who
you are and what you feel. Wasnt it Bird who said, What
comes out the end of your horn is who you really are?
In addition, and equally important, was the statement made to us by Dizzy on
the bus extremely early one morning as we were leaving San Sabastian, Spain, on our way to the airport. After asking
the question, his answer was, The difference between
a Bebop musician and all other musicians is that they play so that everybody
else sounds good. That we should never forget no matter what
our mode of musical expression may be.

Marv, I know
that you know what Im saying and you may be able to better express
it than I can, however, I wanted to endorse your efforts to make things clear
through your Web page. I will send you an addendum to these comments, which
were published here in Quito by the Franz Liszt conservatory as a statement
for the edification of their students and faculty alike. If you would like to
paraphrase anything from it, feel free to do so.

Dr. Robert
Kase has a wide background both as a performer and
educator. He presently serves as Chair of the Department of Music and
Professor of Trumpet at the University of WisconsinStevens
Point and is a regular clinician at schools and universities around the
world. He is an international trumpet artist who is in constant demand in
both jazz and classical ensembles. He has performed solo tours of Sweden,
Norway, England, Germany, France, Russia, Switzerland, Canada, and across the
USA. As a recording artist he has performed on more than 200 recording
projects, including four solo jazz recordings with his own quintet. His
latest CD entitled Those Paris Nights
for the Altenburgh Jazz recording label. He
appears regularly at International Jazz Festivals and as trumpet soloist with
symphony orchestras and concert bands. He writes:

Marv,

Sorry to not
have responded earlier to the letter of John Daniels. With the
verbosity of the Cadenzas getting more and more, I have less and less time to
read let alone respond. I can say that one of the problems with some
professional trumpet players turning to college level teaching is they make
the mistake of believing that all of their students want to become just like
them. The reality is that very few will choose the same path.
While in some higher level conservatories trumpet students will attend a
particular school specifically to study with the specialist (orchestral,
jazz, baroque etc.), the large majority of college trumpet teaching gigs will
be for the wider trumpet studio of a mix of music education majors,
performance majors, jazz majors, Bachelor of Arts, music business etc.
Therefore, it is important for a trumpet college teacher to understand that a
comprehensive approach to trumpet performance is imperative to undergraduate
students. Both you and I studied with John Haynie,
and one of his greatest strengths as a teacher is that he didn't try to turn
his students into a clone of himself. He taught fundamental trumpet
skills, a wide (very wide) concept of trumpet literature, and wasn't afraid
to encourage his students to perform in a very large array of trumpet
concepts knowing that they will play every possible kind of music.

When I was
asked what was the most significant thing I learned from
John J. Haynie, I responded that I learned
how to teach trumpet at the college level. Sure, I learned how to
become a much better player, but the skills most important (as I later found
out) had to do with the pedagogical structure of a comprehensive trumpet
studio. I learned the structure of a course of study, pedagogical
philosophy, the physics of trumpet performance, study of pedogogical
techniques, a huge amount of literature, fundamentals of brass playing
etc. I find too often the pros that want to become trumpet teachers
basically teach the way they were taught with little or no understanding or
appreciation of other schools of performance. That is fine if that that
is the final goal of the student, but not many will ever reach that
end. The same is true for those "lead players" who are only
going to teach students the "secrets" of lead playing.
Teachers who think getting a DMA in trumpet isn't necessary are missing the
point. The DMA may not be necessary to become a great trumpet player,
but it is very significant in becoming a good trumpet teacher.
Hopefully, the DMA program will be about more about the study of trumpet
pedagogy (which it should). The days of the specialist are just about
over. Most trumpet players as well as trumpet teachers are expected to
do it all.

A truly
successful undergraduate trumpet teacher will be one that can teach
remedially. After 30 years of college trumpet teaching, I find most of
what we do best is fixing all of the bad habits in the fundamentals of brass
playing that have occurred after eight years of playing trumpet in schools
bands with poor concepts of air support, articulation, tone, hand positions,
and musical styles, etc. Teaching at the college level is all about understanding not only how to play well, but
how to fix the problems and bad habits that students invariably bring with
them. It is very frustrating to a student to have a teacher pick up the
horn and say do it like this and just blow through
it perfectly. While modeling is very important, it is just as important
to know how to communicate to the student a structured course of study and
remedial exercises that helps them to understand how it works. I can't
begin to tell you the number of students that attempt to play trumpet with
little air support, and they had all kinds of teachers who told them to use
more air. That just isn't enough! A successful trumpet teacher
must be able to have a large library of pedagogical solutions to finding the
way to make that light bulb go on. That often takes a great deal of
teaching experience and pedagogical study with students possessing all kinds
of problems. Students with a beautiful sound that can't count, students
who have amazing technique but a small thin sound, chops problems, teeth
problems etc. Many college students who play very well simply come to
school never having listened to a classical trumpet recording before.

I vividly
remember once when working on a concerto (I can't remember which one.
It may have been the Giannini) with Haynie, I kept frackinga G# on the top of the staff. After two weeks of
making the same error, Haynie took his pencil and
crossed out the G# and wrote an Ab. I never missed it again. That
kind of pedagogical comprehension takes experience. Many outstanding
players have never gone through any of the pedagogical trials that many
trumpet students have had to deal with. They may never have had an
embouchure problem or a tonguing problem, or flexibility issues. One
may teach quite differently if they themselves have had to deal with multiple
embouchure problems only to finally discover the issue had nothing to do with
the embouchure.

My point is
that successful teaching trumpet, just like professional trumpet playing,
requires a great deal of comprehensive pedagogical study and
experience. I believe that in teaching...there is no teaching, only
learning. It doesn't matter how well you teach; what matters is how
well the student learns. A successful teacher learns more from the
students than the students learn from them about how to teach trumpet
well. Being able to perform well, while vital, isn't enough to become a
successful trumpet teacher. Just like trumpet playing, the world is
full of mediocre teachers, but few masters. True understanding of
trumpet pedagogy is really not that old. Before that time, teachers
tended to only teach how they performed, and what they thought was
musical. That is why the baroque performance practices of the 1960's
and 70's were based on the European romantic concepts of the day instead of
sound historic knowledge and study. The empirical concept of trumpet
teaching still exists in conservatories around the world. That is fine
if you can simply throw out any student who doesn't hack the professional
standards that a particular conservatory demands. In today's
undergraduate liberal arts college or university that equation will have a
very low success rate and your job will depend on the numbers of successful
students as well as the quality in your studio. Today (and hopefully
far into the future) continued dedication to trumpet pedagogy will reinforce
the dedicated study of teaching and the pragmatic understanding of how to
reach student's understanding of performance practice.

Well, enough
for today. Thanks for the soapbox.

Bob

Bob Curnow
is a graduate of West Chester State University (PA) and Michigan State
University, having completed two Master's degrees and his doctoral studies.
As a trombonist, Bob joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra and toured the United
States, Great Britain, Scotland, and Wales. In 1973, he became the A & R
Director, arranger, composer, record producer and general manager for
Kenton's Creative World Records, producing over 30 LPs for Kenton. His
arrangements and compositions can be heard on six Stan Kenton albums. Bob has
also served as an adjudicator and clinician at jazz festivals in over 40
states and Canada. Bob is a past-president of the International Association
of Jazz Education (IAJE) and in January, 1999, was inducted into the IAJE
Hall of Fame. Bob lives with his wife Darlene in Liberty Lake, Washington
where he runs Sierra Music. Sierra is the exclusive publisher of the Stan
Kenton Orchestra Library, along with the music of many other great jazz
artists/composers. He writes:

Hi Marv:

My reason for
writing ... I just finished reading John Daniel's remarks about teaching. I
was stunned by how parallel our careers have been. Although I haven't been an
active educator for almost 20 years now (I now spend all my time on Sierra
Music Publications), our early days, our development, our professional
experiences, our schooling, our degrees, etc., etc., are all very
similar. I did teach at the university level for 23 years (as you
know), and have had a fair amount of success as a professional player
(trombonist) and composer/arranger, as has John. His feelings about
teaching, and the desires of others to teach really hit home for me.
There wasn't one thing he said that I disagreed with. There it is, simply
stated. I had the feeling (between the lines) that, perhaps, he has
even stronger feelings about the poor teaching that is going on all
throughout this great land. Who wouldn't?

As long as
I'm writing, please allow me to address a couple of other things. The
state of our educational system, from kindergarten through the 4th year of
college, is seriously disfunctional. Two areas, in
particular, come to mind. The first is teacher preparation. It just isn't
happening as it should. All three of our children are teachers, and I and my
wife were teachers. All of us, I believe, had wonderful preparation for the
profession. However, the horror stories I hear from all three children
are very depressing. On one hand, I'm glad not to be a part of it anymore. On
the other hand, I wonder if I shouldn't have tried to do more, teach for a
longer time. So many teachers are only there for the paycheck and couldn't
care less about their students. Most of this miserable attitude is due
to the fact that they don't really want to be there, and they are usually ill
prepared for being there.

The second
area of deep concern is expectations and discipline issues, particularly on
the junior high through high school level (where most of the serious work
must be done). The inability of faculty to properly discipline students, due
to limitations from "society" or administration, is pathetic.
The results are easy to witness. We see a growing problem in our
society every day. To this end, I believe that the teachers are as much the victims
as are the students. In fact, we're all victims. The same with expectations.
What is expected from the students in our current system? Nada.

Now, this
does not have so much to do with music education, but it obviously has a
tremendous impact on it. I know one of the very few bright spots in
education, on all levels, is what is happening in Arts education. We
all know that. Don't get me wrong. The best teachers are more
often than not in the Arts. And certainly those students who are lucky enough
to have had good Arts education seem to do very well in life. No secret
there.

So, hurrah to
John, and hurrah to you as well for creating Cadenzas. It's
always fun to read the thoughts of others.

Stay
well. See you soon, I hope.

Bob Curnow

Bob Bush is
married to a dear friend of mine, Winnie Carson-Bush, with whom I played in
our high school band. We have recently become reacquainted after many years 
a source of great pleasure for me. Bob and Winnie now live in California. Bob
received a BS in English from the University of North Dakota and an MS in
Administration from Chapman University. After serving two years in the US
Army during the Korean War, he worked for Bank of America, then went back to
school, taught high school English for four and one-half years, but then went
to work for IBM to support his family. Bob got back into teaching at the four
through six grade level, then moved to the middle
school area, teaching grades seven and eight English, Drama & Physical
Education. Now retired, his teaching career totaled thirty-seven years in the
classroom. He writes:

Marvin -
Sorry I didn't respond earlier to John Daniel's piece on teaching. I know he
was essentially talking about the teaching of music, but the idea of using
music in the regular classroom is also of significance. Both Winnie and I
used music throughout our careers. Age differences meant we used music for
different reasons, but we both feel that, if for no other reason than simply
enjoying it, music aided kids in learning. I used lyrics of contemporary
songs to teach poetry, while Winnie used it to put on plays, such as the
"Three Pigs Opera." This was quite a production and Winnie and the
kids always followed the play by serving a meal of "wolfStew" that
she and the kids cooked for their parents - and for us, too, of course!!

Neil Diamond
had a great song titled "Done Too Soon." In it he named 20 plus
people who died before they had accomplished all they could. I assigned each
person named in the song to individual students as research projects. The
slowest young man in my class that year, a kid who was truly troubled, and
didn't get much support from home, gave a report on Jesus. I kept asking him
if he was having any difficulty on his research, and he always said it was
going okay. On report day, his oral presentation consisted of
"Jesus Christ was the Son of God." That one didn't come out as well
as I had hoped, but the rest of the reports came out fine, except for the
young lady to whom I had assigned Russ Colombo. She and both parents hunted
for information on him at the Base library and both county libraries and
could find nothing.(This was waaayyy
before the internet!) I always thought that the family attempt was probably
worth more that her actually writing a report. I
think John's e-mail to you hit my hot button because he reiterated the base
of a philosophy both of us believed. He
mentioned a teacher he had who treated each student, and cared for each
student, individually. Listening to the solos helps hearing the entire symphony

Bob

In Response To: New
York Jazz Clubs

Mark Morganelli, trumpeter and flugelhornist
is Executive Director of Jazz Forum Arts, a 22-year-old not-for-profit arts
presenting organization which produces jazz concert series at Tarrytown Music
Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Jazz Forum Arts will present fifty free
concerts in Westchester County, NY for a seventh consecutive summer. Morganelli owned and operated the Jazz Forum, a
musician's loft/club in Greenwich Village from 1979-1983, before becoming
Music Coordinator of Birdland from 1988-1993. He
has also produced concerts at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, The Beacon
Theater, Town Hall, Tilles Center, and NJPAC. He
writes:

Thanks, Marv,
for another excellent edition of Cadenzas. It was great to see and
hear you, and even hang out a bit, at IAJE. As you know, I was in the
audience at the Sheraton, and it was pure musical magic. Kudos to you and the
other members of the group.

A brief comment
on your NYC Jazz Club rant (pardon the expression)...

I totally
agree with what you've said, and want to offer my own perspective, having
owned and operated the Jazz Forum loft/club from 1979-1983 (almost ancient
history at this point I dare say).

Of course
being a musician first put me in an advantaged perch when I decided to invite
groups to perform in my space. First off, they had to be groups I wanted to
hear. Secondly, they had to be willing to work within my rather limited
budget. Thirdly, I had come to add the element of being able to market the
music effectively so that both parties enjoy a successful outcome.

Having said
that, I do relish the memories of having our house rhythm section (actually
lived there btw) collaborate with great artists such as Dizzy Reece, Clifford
Jordan, and Pepper Adams, to name a few from the very start in 1979 at 50
Cooper Square. From there, I began to hire groups that I enjoyed and actually
continued presenting through the second incarnation at 648 Broadway. Some of
these groups included the Louis Hayes/Frank Strozier
Quartet, the BillHardman/Junior
Cook Quintert, featuring Walter Bishop, Jr., the
Bob Berg & Tom Harrell Quintet, Kenny Barron (in any format), the Barry
Harris Trio, George Coleman, Woody Shaw, Red Rodney, and many others. Many of
these groups I mention did not draw well initially, as you alluded to in your
piece, but with the investment of time, energy, limited resources, and great
word-of-mouth, they wound up developing a strong following, allowing me to
rebook them many times over the four years of the Jazz Forum in Greenwich
Village.

Anyway, you
struck a note with me, and I just wanted to reminisce a bit on the good ol' days. Thanks again for your keen insight and
articulation of what many of us feel but do not say.

Best
always,

Mark

Marty
Erickson was for twenty-six years principal tuba with the U. S. Navy Band in
Washington, DC. Marty currently teaches the tuba-euphonium studio and directs
the tuba-euphonium ensemble and brass choir at Lawrence University in
Appleton, Wisconsin, as well as serving as tubist
with Millennium Brass and the Brass Band of Battle Creek. He also teaches the
tuba-euphonium studio at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Marty has two
current CDs - Smile (upon which I had the pleasure of playing) and My
Very Good Friend with pianist John Sheridan. Soon to be released is a new
CD in duo with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. You can learn more about Marty
Erickson at his Website: www.martytuba.com.

Hi Marvin,

Thanks for
the note. I just read Edition XXIV from cover to cover,
and enjoyed it immensely. Great to hear about your activitites,
joys and concerns, and very nice of you to include my dear colleague John
Daniel's letter. He is a passionate and caring teacher who brings much to the
table with respect to not only artistry and caring pedagogy, but the deeper
thinking that many of us rarely engage in with any regularity.

Wonderful to
spend the brief time together with the Brass Band of Battle Creek ...
terrific performance on your part ... AS USUAL!!! Sorry we didn't have as
much time to visit but we always look forward to the next possibilty
of hearing you and visiting.

I just wanted
to let you know how much I enjoyed this issue of Cadenzas. The club
scene in NY has been repeated all over the States, of course. I gigged in
Washington D.C. and Baltimore for nearly 30 years and can echo your
sentiments. It was so sad recently to drive a friend around D.C., someone who
had never visited there. I essentially drove him past places which were great
memories for me, The Cellar Door, Charlies Place
(Charlie Byrds jazz club), Bohemian Caverns (where I saw my
first jazz performance in D.C. -- Bill Evans with Eddie Gomez and Shelley Manne -- one of his rare east coast appearances), and
others. They are ALL closed or have morphed into comedy clubs, shops, or
whatever. One or two bastions of jazz continue -- Blues Alley, of course, and
I think that One Step Down is still active, but with the ambient noise you
referred to in the letter. Even when my kids and Alison and I came to see you
several years ago at the old jazz club The Green Mill in Chicago, there was
some of that noise. We were only able to get seats crammed near the back and
while the jazz club has great ambience and provides the opportunity to hear
folks like you and Ed Soph that night ... it was
STILL difficult to simply enjoy the great music making.

Also -
regarding Bob Curnows post, you should know that I was Bobs bass player for two years at Michigan State
University: 1965-66, about the time his piece Passacaglia and Fugue
won some awards. He was a great leader and teacher, and it's so nice to find
out where he is now. One thing I can appreciate more now than I did then was
that we knew Bob had been with Kenton and done some very significant things,
but the band was about the students. He was patient, professional, and all
about teaching, helping us find the appreciation, excitement, and importance
of jazz education. It certainly left a positive impression with me and helped
shape my life, at least in part, for the future. Kudos and warm wishes to
Bob.

Regards,Marty

Harold Zinno is a trumpet player, currently residing in
Connecticut. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of
North Texas in 1978 and went on to play with the bands of Ray Mckinley, Tommy Dorsey, Sonny Constanzo
and Lew Anderson. Harold has also done show work with Mitzi Gaynor, Wayne
Newton and Steve Lawrence and EydieGorme. He writes:

Hi Marv:

In reference
to your article on New York Clubs: Well Said!!!

I was invited
to a New York Jazz club a few weeks ago by the club's booking agent to see A
Jazz Tribute to Sinatra. Well, the place was packed
on a Thursday Night having taken in a $30.00 music charge and a two-drink
minimum per person. The presentation was mediocre at best, and when I
approached this subject with my host, his retort was, The
club is making money, and I'm making money. So, as you said, it
is not about the music anymore!!!

John
Daniel has over 20 years experience, teaching
college at Abilene Christian University and Penn State University; he began
teaching at Lawrence Conservatory in Appleton, WI September, 2002. He
has played as a sub on Broadway, with dozens of symphony orchestras, and
appeared as a soloist in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and at numerous
universities. He writes:

Marvin,

In response
to your "rant"/"confession" against the vast majority of
"jazz" singers, I would like to share a conversation I had with
Noah Harmon last week. Noah is the son of a great jazz pianist, John
Harmon, and a very fine jazz pianist himself. We were on our way to a
gig, making small talk, when we were reminded that we were going to have a
singer sitting in for the gig. I mentioned that I didn't listen to much
"jazz singing" and Noah started to inquire. I made the bold
statement that one reason I love jazz so much is that it is primarily an
instrumental art form. I asked him to name one singer who influenced
jazz in a progressive direction. I'm talking about the great
innovators, (Louis, Dizzy, Coltrane, Miles, Monk)
the ones who gave direction to jazz and opened new passages in order to
enrich the music. All of the usual names came up, and quite a few
more. There have been quite a number of great singers in jazz, and
quite a few great jazz musicians who sing. And in many cases, ala Louis, their singing has influenced the art of
singing profoundly. But singing is such a universal form of expression, as
soon as someone sings a jazz tune, jazz tends to be of secondary importance
to what's going on. Of course we all love the great ones who can sing jazz
and let the music be more important than the singer. But even at it's best, jazz singing somehow
isn't in a position to guide and direct the art form progressively. Or
at least it has yet to do so. Think about it. It is a difficult concept
to articulate, but I really think one's "voice" in jazz is
something that is easily obscured by the act of singing.

For example,
Bill Evans made the piano a beautiful voice in a way that was unique.
We often say that he made the piano sing. So I think jazz is primarily
an artform for the voice of the piano, trumpet,
saxophone, drums etc.

Of course
time could prove me wrong, and I may be wrong as it is. But I think
there is enough truth to these words to consider them on some level.

We have a
regional favorite in WI named Janet Planet. She sings in tune, in time,
with great feeling, and a very earthy/sensual voice. She sings in many
jazz styles and formats. She was singing with John Harmon the first
time I heard her live, and I noticed that she didn't try to draw attention to
herself on stage. When I mentioned this her
eyes lit up. She said that all she's ever wanted was to be a great
"sideman." And I think she got to the heart of the matter.

John

Melvin
Gordy, like myself, was a John Haynie
student. He was among the first group that John taught upon coming to the
University of North Texas. Melvin, from the beginning, has been the Web
master and organizer of events that bring John's students together year after
year. Melvin has been flying since 1954, and was a pilot in the Civil Air
Patrol (USAF-AUX). He now enjoys a career as a building designer and also
teaches architectural and engineering drafting atBrazosport College in Lake Jackson, Texas. He
writes:

Marvin,

I've been wanting to write this note for your "In
Response" section of Cadenzas to you for years. My problem is that
I have a hard time getting my thoughts down on paper; anyway, here goes.

I first heard
your "Risk Taking" comment about four five or more years ago when
you were giving a lecture/performance at College of the Mainland, Texas City,
Texas. That was the one Dale and Diane Olson and I attended.

I was so
impressed by that statement that I have been telling all my students about
"Risk Taking" ever since that day. I assume you know I teach
architectural and engineering drafting (adjunct faculty) at Brazosport College, Lake Jackson, Texas.

I want
to thank you for all the help and advice you've given to the young student
musicians that attend your seminars you give at the various Colleges and
Universities around this United States. What impressed me most was your
"Risk Taking" statement. Meaning, as I understood it, that if they
wanted to succeed, they would have to be willing to step out and take risks
(not stupid ones either). Why, because if they just sit and wait and to be
discovered, the truth is that they're possibility in for very a long wait.
Also, don't give-up if you don't do well in a performance; but, find what
went wrong, correct it (practice and improve) and try again, just don't give-up!!!

Then there is
the "I could have done this or that" group. These are the ones that
could have but didn't. Why, because they were afraid to take a chance (Risk Taking)
and possibly fail; so, they play it SAFE and never do anything. These are the
same folks that you hear say, "You know that guy got all the good breaks
in life and etc." They spend their entire life feeling sorry for
themselves and envious on the ones that do "MAKE IT".

Anyway, this
what I read into your "Risk Taking" comment and why I feel that is
such an important statement that these students need to pay attention to.

After reading
your recent article about Mr. Haynie, I realize
what an influence Mr. Haynie had on you and your
presentations to these students; because, you too care about young people
also,

Steve
Swanson is a trumpet player who has performed with Buddy Rich, Lionel
Hampton. Wayne Cochran and the CC Riders, Lou Rawls, Johnny Mathis, The
Temptations, The Four Tops, Frank Sinatra, and others. He has recorded umerous commercial, TV and radio ads in Los Angeles, New
Orleans, and New York. Steve currently lives in Port Angeles, WA with his
wife Linda and three cats. Most recently he played lead for Princess Cruise
Line ships, but also teaches and does clinics in the Pacific Northwest. He is
a graduate ofBerklee
School of Music (1976) and has studied with Jerry Bergonzi,
Bobby Shew, Wes Hensel,
Roy Stevens, Floyd Standifer, Gary Peacock, Roy
Cummings, and Herb Pomeroy.

Dear Marvin,

I believe the
concern is real. I just recently played for a cruise line with many
international employees and heard first hand how we
(US citizens) are perceived. I knew this many years ago as well, while
touring with Buddy Rich in Europe and Asia. Although this time, it is much
different. My embarrassment for our current Government goes without saying,
as well for the citizens who re-elected King Bush. Just today I saw on CNN
John McCain being endorsed by Jerry Falwell! But the
beauty of this was that their speeches were delivered at a university where
hundreds of young people/graduates held signs in protest to this hypocrisy. I
am so glad that this generation can see through the BS that has, for some
reason, eluded the yuppie generation.

Mr. Bush and
his cronies have done more to destroy this country in less than 6 years than
any administration in history. Maybe President Hoover, but maybe not. We may
never recover in our lifetime the damage, in so many arenas. The divide between
the haves and have-nots
has never been greater. I see it musically as well due to our dumbing-down
of society perpetuated by the media (Murdock/FOX) in regards to the exposure
of quality music and broad-minded journalism. Especially in the rural areas
of our country where little, if any, exposure to the arts exists. USA news
has got to be the most biased paper in this country. Consolidation of all
monopolies seems to be the name of the game. Corporate consolidation in all
aspects of business. Transportation, communication, manufacturing, human
resources, etc. - all without little regulation, and mostly encouragement in
the form of tax exemptions, no taxes or union-busting. All in the name of
free enterprise or the open market.

In the movie Network
Howard Beal said it best. I want you now to go
to your windows, open them up and yellIm
as mad as hell, Im not going to take it anymore.

Best,Steve
Swanson

Ed Annibale has played the trumpet for 37 years, ten of
those years in both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army band systems. He has
performed in Hollywood with the likes of James Stewart, Milton Berle, ZsaZsa
Gabor, Vikki Carr, Brock Peters, and Christopher Reeve. He also played lead
trumpet for Cab Calloway and split-lead for Bill Watrous.
In addition, Ed has performed with members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
and in a special brass ensemble directed by Mel Broiles
for New York's Metropolitan Opera. Opting for a steady paycheck, excellent
benefits package, and retirement plan, he is currently employed as a
Correctional Sergeant in a maximum security prison where he has been a
"prisoner of the system" since 1995. At the present time, he
is working on organizing a show band and is accepting trumpet students.

Hi Marvin,

I have read
your article, "So - How Do I Really Feel?" and have to agree with
you on this. If anyone wants to claim that you are just some liberal
spouting off, I can tell you that I am not what most people would consider a
liberal. Please allow me to address this from a little different standpoint.
As you know from our conversation in Evanston, Illinois, I am a Correctional
Sergeant employed at a maximum security prison. In addition, I have served my
country for a total of 10 years (7 years in the US Air Force and 3 years in
the US Army). I now work for a state government. I have seen from both sides
the abuse of authority and the non-accountability from the upper echelons of
the government. Those employed by the government and hired or appointed to
these higher governmental positions think that their decisions are always
right and that they can do as they please without fear of repercussions
because they feel they are untouchable. I have seen this many times within
the federal and state governments. If the superiors of the powers to be
support their every decision and refuse to hold them accountable, it is the
lower ranking, working person that gets harassed, disciplined or discharged
with no recourse.

Do I sound
bitter? Yes, because I have worked as a professional musician, but accepted a
government position in order to feed my family and take care of them. I am,
however, not in a position where I can say I am proud to be a Correctional
Officer. When I first started working for the state, I was told, "You
will be working with some of the dirtiest, filthiest, piece of crap scumbags
that you'll ever meet - - - - and some of the inmates are bad too." I
have seen firsthand how supervisors will hold a subordinate accountable for
some minor infraction, but the supervisors themselves are in violation of
policy more than the officers. The problem is that the officers (guards) have
no way of having the supervisor disciplined for their unprofessional and
unethical behavior, because as the old adage goes, "$#!+
rolls downhill." Our government has increasingly become a type of
fascist society. Those up top give the orders and we follow. If not,
well, all I can say is to read the comment from Bobby Lewis. If people don't
think the government acts this way, they are living in a dreamland and need
to wake up.

I do love my
country, but I love the principles that it was founded on, not what
modern-day society and the government is doing to it. I have found that it is
not the people who truly care that get appointed to positions of great authority
- - it's the people that have a need to feel the power of being in charge.
Last election, we had squat to choose from for a President, the person who
runs the entire country. I don't agree with what happened on 9/11, but I
don't believe getting our soldiers killed in a foreign country is solving the
problem. All it is doing is resulting in lost lives and broken families. We
have enough broken families in this country without the President helping
out. I say we do what Korea did years ago. Close off our borders to everyone.
No trading, no exporting or importing. No giving government assistance to
other countries. Become a self-sufficient country and worry about cleaning up
our own problems here in the United States of America and rebuild our country
to be the greatest nation in the world once again.

Ed Annibale

Jay Leonhart (as described by his resume') "is a bass
player and singer/songwriter and constant letter writer to the New York
Times, which does not print him most of the Times." But Jay is much more
than that. Yes, he is an extraordinary musician - one of our finest bassists
- but he is also one of music's great lyricists and satirists. Maybe an apt
description of Jay Leonhart would be that he can
swing like crazy while telling you "like it is!" Jay, his wife
Donna, and their children Michael and Caroline all are wonderful musicians
and beautiful human beings. Jay writes:

Marvin,

I walk around
these days feeling like an accomplice to a great international crime. I
watched us try to assassinate Saddam Hussein by dropping bombs all over
Baghdad-aw shucks, missed again. Murder was a video game. Our government, my
government, was trying to murder a country's leader. I know Saddam is a bad
guy. He murders and tortures his own people. We murder and torture other
country's people. But to attempt to assassinate another country's leader is
an international crime. No wonder we don't support the international courts.

When one
starts to understand the political conditions that bred Hitler, Stalin, and other
such despots, you find that fervent religious nationalism is always at the
core. Some form of racial and religious zealotry is always present. And
ignorance is always is great supply. These charismatic and sociopathic
leaders are always convinced that their race is the one chosen to lead
humanity to the its true greatness. But inevitably
it is to keep themselves in power and enslave as much of the rest of the
world as possible.

I know these are
strong words to apply to that nice man from Texas and his buddies, but
through their ignorance and total lack of philosophical insight, we find
ourselves trundling down the road to Fascism. But I think Americans may be
sensing this, guilty as we all are of benign, criminal neglect.

Jay Leonhart

Jack
Cooper is Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Memphis. He served
six years in the U. S. Army, then went to school and achieved his doctrate at the University of Texas at Austin. He is not
only one of the best teachers I know, but is also a very fine saxophone
player and woodwind doubler. Jack is a very fine
and special musician. He writes:

We are are living in a very delicate and pivotal time in this
country's history. Marvin, what you have said about the present state of
things in Washington D.C. and around the world is sad commentary, and I am
amazed at how we actually arrived here. I wish we all would be asking more
questions in regards to the greater good. My formative yearsbeing raised
were spent watching and understanding the errors of the Vietnam War and the
happenings of Watergate; these two events shaped a great deal of my thinking
as to how we see ourselves as Americans. I was not alive during WWII or
during the Joseph McCarthy years or the Korean War. My perspective might be
different than certain of your older writers making commentary on our present
circumstances, I do understand about the safety of Americans here and abroad.

I served in
the armed forces for six years (by my choice, my parents were not really for
this at the time BTW) and you will find no better supporter of that entity;
no one is more patriotic than myself. I am deeply saddened and disturbed to
the point of tears in my eyes when we get more reports of American service
personnel severely injured orkilled in Iraq.
I am turning 43 years old this weekend, and it really makes me think a lot
about all this. I am thankful I have been afforded a life of writing,
playing, and sharing music with people around the world. Americans are
now numbering in the thousands of casualities in a
war that has no end, initiated by a government who is out of touch and down right corrupt in thier
actions. Many of those killed in Iraq are half my age or less and were never
able to fulfill the many dreams and aspirations they were thinking about.
This is blood on the hands of George Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald
Rumsfeld (et al). Is this all worth it? Are we truly safer? Oil?
Judeo-Christian American values? Democracy in the Middle East? We need to
question it all and start finding answers fast so no more Americans die
without cause.

Jack
Cooper

David
Greene is an old friend from my NYC recording studio days, before taking up
residence in Toronto. He is one of the finest recording engineers and
producers, a musician with great ears. He has recorded many of the leading
Jazz and pop artists in the U. S. and Canada a well
as have worked extensively in television and the movies. In 1980, he came
down to NYC to work with me and composer/ arranger Jack Cortner
to co-produce my CD, Stammpede. His is one of the
most respected names in music and audio production. He writes:

Hi Marvin...

I felt
compelled to write you and let you know that, from my point of view, there's
no lack of solidarity or passion on this issue. To put it a little more
bluntly, the current administration could easily be subtitled "The
Manipulation of America for Profit, Fun and Profit."

While I agree
with everything you say, my readings indicate that the issue goes far deeper.
I would recommend reading "State of War - The Secret History of the
CIA and the Bush Administration" by James Risen. He's the Times
reporter who broke the NSA domestic spying story. One of the most disturbing
things in the book is that the invasion of Iraq was at or near the top of the
to-do list from day one, and September 11 was a blip on the Iraq timeline
that has been used to maximum advantage ever since.

I would also
recommend reading "Terror in the Name of God - Why Religious Militants
Kill" by Jessica Stern. Among other notable credits she is a
lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. I found it a
fascinating and at times a surprising read.

A few years
ago I worked on a CBS mini-series that chronicled Adolph Hitler's rise to
power from the end of WW1 through the point where he assumed supreme power by
combining the offices of President and Chancellor. That was a result of the
burning of the Reichstag by a Dutch terrorist. The parallels between that era
in Germany in 1933 and the corresponding period following September 2001 and
disturbing to say the least, and we all know the history that followed 1933.

Rest assured
that you're not alone. Unfortunately, the political system that is currently
in place has been crafted in such a way that it no longer works the way it
was intended to work. It will not be an easy fix. I applaud you for speaking
out on the subject. Perhaps if more of us did we could play a part in the
beginnings of change. I'll step down from my soap box now and close by saying
that I hope you and your family are all well.

Cheers,David

Dr. Robert
Kase has a wide background both as a performer and
educator. He presently serves as Chair of the Department of Music and
Professor of Trumpet at the University of WisconsinStevens
Point and is a regular clinician at schools and universities around the
world. He is an international trumpet artist who is in constant demand in
both jazz and classical ensembles. He has performed solo tours of Sweden,
Norway, England, Germany, France, Russia, Switzerland, Canada, and across the
USA. As a recording artist he has performed on more than 200 recording
projects, including four solo jazz recordings with his own quintet. His
latest CD entitled Those Paris Nights
for the Altenburgh Jazz recording label. He
appears regularly at International Jazz Festivals and as trumpet soloist with
symphony orchestras and concert bands. He writes:

Marv,

I couldnt
agree with you more. Your points are right on the target and get to the
real issue which is one of integrity. While I have always had my
opinions regarding politics, (dont we all) this is the
first time I have actually been worried about the future of this great
nation. I have done quite a bit of international traveling and I have
seen first hand the damage this President has done
to the integrity of the USA in rest of the world. I truly hope that
history treats Mr. Bush in the manner for which he deserves. He is an
embarrassment. The world continually asks the question, Is
George W. Bush the best democracy has to offer the USA for leadership?
Are we not the ones responsible for electing him? The first term, they
would forgive us, but to do this twice is stupidity and the world simply
blames the American citizens. If we are to be the keepers of democracy
then WE must accept the responsibility for the leaders we elect. The
world is watching to see if we are stupid enough to do this again. Isnt
it time for us to take the responsibility for who we elect?

Bob Kase

Bob Bush
is married to a dear friend of mine with whom I played in our high school
band. We have recently become re-acquainted after many years 
a source of great pleasure for me. Bob and his wife now live in California.
Bob received a BS in English from the University of North Dakota and an MS in
Administration from Chapman University. After serving two years in the US
Army during the Korean War, he worked for Bank of America, then went back to
school, taught high school English for four and one-half years, but then went
to work for IBM to support his family. Bob got back into teaching at the four
through six grade level, then moved to the middle school area, teaching
grades seven and eight English, Drama & Physical Education Now retired,
his teaching career totaled thirty-seven years in the classroom. He writes:

Marvin,

Truly enjoyed
the "Cadenzas" pieces, both musical and political. Reflecting on
both sets gave me paradigm I'd not thought of before. Bart Marantz talks of
you giving him the "time" to discuss his musical dilemma, and Bob
Freedman talks of kids seeing themselves "as stars
of-literally-tomorrow," meaning time of a
different order now. Craig Gibson mentioned the "cry of poverty" in
school districts, the implication being that when money gets tight, schools
cut back on the arts. Another responder made a comment about some
of the problems in music are "pan-social." Time, poverty, and
pan-societal issues in music? Aren't these issues facing our nation, also? We
do not have enough money to fund this program, but we do have enough to fund
that program. We want "something" done immediately about energy
costs, when the problem arose over a period of years. Our needs in North
Dakota are more important than your needs in South Dakota. The concepts of
red state/blue state, right wing/left wing, neo-con/progressive, fiscally
conservative/big-spender all seem to me to be predicated on "I want what
is mine, right now!"

I know little
of the state of music education in America. I do know that music, in all its
forms, is and has always been part of the soul of our nation. People of all
backgrounds enjoy the beauty of those sounds, be they opera, Broadway, New
Orleans, Monterey or MTV. Though there is a vast diversity in genre, music
has a certain unifying effect. What we need is some unifying effect in our
nation, and I can see one way of starting that unification.

If both of
the major party presidential candidates were to tell all the competing
interests in our country to kiss off, tell them they are not going to fill
out any questionnaire, not going to take any litmus test, but were simply
going to do what is in the best interest of the greatest number of people in
our country, and not be beholding to any group other than the populous, we
just may stop the bleeding. Then we all might start taking the time to look
at the needs of our nation, not our own narrow needs, and take the time to
solve problems, and deal with extreme issues in a timely manner, truly
improve the security ofour country,
help alleviate the needs of the poor, and bring our society back so some
semblance of civility. I know this is incredibly idealistic, but cynicism is
what has brought about many of the conditions that need to be fixed!

Peace,Bob

Bobby
Lewis is a long time friend of mine from Chicago, a
great trumpet and flugelhorn artist. Bobby is also a long-time recording
studio veteran of forty-two years on and was the creator of the trumpet
ensemble The Forefront. He has produced nine CD great recordings, including
the just released album Instant Groove. You can learn more about Bobby at
www.bobbylewis.com. He writes:

Hi Marvin,

In the early
1970's while Nixon was still in office and the war in Viet Nam was going on
and on for reasons we have yet to know, I was married and had just purchased
our first house in Wilmette (Illinois). My wife, Myrna, wrote a letter to the
president assuming she had freedom of expression to offer her criticisms of
his Viet Nam war policies and explained that "she would do everything in
her power to see that he get impeached".

Very soon
after she sent the letter the IRS knocked at my door wanting to examine my
corporate records, to which I replied they would have to contact my
accountant for that. I certainly wasn't going to let them in my house. (At
the time I was a newly formed sub-chapter S corporation to handle my music
dealings). The CIA also visited her parents
home in Kankakee (Illinois) and questioned her father about her. A notice was
sent that they would be able to confiscate our new house, bank accounts, and
all our personal belongings...this was a few weeks before Christmas. My wife
was grief-stricken, as was I.

Shortly after
that I received a demand for a corporate audit from the IRS. They contacted
my accountant and spent two 8 hour days at his office going through every
receipt, ledger entry, etc. etc. etc. and informed him that I owed $8000! For
what? Parking and gas receipts? What other trivial deductions does a musician
have? They scheduled more audits...five over the next year and insisted I
owed them more money, which my accountant challenged each time, of course,
taking up his time and costing me his fees. After much time and effort and my
accountant accusing the IRS of harassment, I did have to pay some money to
them. Then after Nixon's impeachment, to our surprise and delight, the audits
and the harassment all ceased, and quite obviously, the black star was
removed from my file....and I have not been audited since!!!!!!

So you wonder
why you haven't received as much response to your epistle,"So
- How Do I Feel?" Maybe it has to do with the fact that other people
feel as I do that they could get harassed, as
I was. Freedom of speech and the freedom to express your views to your
president? Don't count on it!!!!

Stay well,
brother,Bobby

Morris Repass is an old friend from my days at the University of
North Texas. When I was a student at UNT, Morris was the bass trombonist with
the Dallas Symphony and first-call for all the recording work in that city.
Morris has lived for many years in Los Angeles where he is one of the most
sought-after bass trombonists on the L. A. scene. He writes:

Hi Marv,

It is always
nice to get your Web site new issues. I have known you since you were a student
at North Texas, and I was in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and worked some
gigs with you. A LONG TIME AGO!

Regarding
your article, I think it is great in this wonderful country of ours that we
can have differing opinions and RESPECT each others
viewpoint. Mine comes from my being in High School when World War II was
going. This shapes my viewpoint because I saw the mistakes of that time by
our government in Washington and do NOT think we should make the same
mistakes. Again--that would be stupid! Just before World War II broke out
Adolf Hitler was building a huge war machine and air force to take over THE
WORLD! Everyone in Europe, England and France were APPEASERS! England signed
a treaty with Hitler, and Chamberlain came back to England waving that piece
of paper saying PEACE IN OUR TIME! Then Hitler took over Czechoslovakia,
Poland, France, and even tried taking over Russia. SOME TREATY, HUH?

Our
Congressmen and Senators in Washington said DON'T GET INVOLVED! THERE
IS AN ENTIRE OCEAN BETWEEN US, DON'T GET INVOLVED! Meanwhile Hitler went
about killing millions of people!!

Then when
Japan attacked us on December 7, 1941, we declared war on Japan and Hitler
declared war on the United States! Italy was their ally, so they were after
us too.!!! We had practically no war machine at that
time because our Congressmen and Senators didn't want to fund it!
Consequently for the first 2 years of that war the United States was losing!!
We got busy and, with American dedication and know-how, we got up to speed and
defeated enemies across both oceans. I have many friends who lost their lives
making that happen.

Today I hear
so many people say DON'T GET INVOLVED in Afghanistan and Iraq. Sound
familiar? After 9/11, war was declared upon us by Islamic Muslim Terrorists!
Saddam Hussein was sending $25,000 to $30,000 to families of Palistinian families whose terrorist sons had killed
themselves and dozens of Israelis. He also had mass graves where he buried
thousands of Iraqi people. Sound familiar?

The world is
very small now and if we don't learn from history, we are condemned to repeat
it, as the saying goes. So-o-o- THAT'S ALL I
HAVE TO SAY. No more politics from me on this Web site. I love to talk
about music. MUSIC IS MY MISTRESS!

Dr.
Michael Parkinson is a fine musician, an excellent trumpet player, currently
serving as Chair of the Department of Music at Webster University in St.
Louis, Missouri.

Dear Marvin,

Thank you for
keeping the faith personally and muscially.
You need not apolgoize for the statements you
make. I join with you and countless other level headed Americans who
are worried sick about the direction that our country has taken due to the misguided
and self righteous decisions of the man who sits in
the White House and those who surround him. I am one of those Americans who
refuse to accept Mr. Bush as the lawfully elected President. To be
fair, I would feel the same way had Mr. Gore unfairly been chosen by the
"Supremes" (as Brookmeyer calls them) to
be President. It is the PEOPLE who make the choice - or
are at least supposed to. As long as these "other people" are
in charge, our country will lean further and further to the right, a myopic
ultraconservative Christianity will be entrenched in all areas of government,
the environment will suffer, the oil cartel will be rewarded, the poor will
get poorer, the sick will have fewer options for health care, our rights will
be squandered as the Constitution gets torn into pieces and laws are ignored
and/or broken, and we will be viewed by most of the world as the enemy.
Not that I have an opinion about it. And yes, I am a Christian with clay feetl - seeking to live by Psalm 103. Have you read
"What's the matter with Kansas?" - if
not, please read it soon. Be kind to yourself, Marvin, and count me as
a supporter. Yes, you can post my remarks.

Peace
(please),Mike

Al Molina
is a very fine Jazz musician, a trumpet player, living and working in the San
Francisco Bay area. He writes:

I'm concerned
about American issues as are most who are aware of the direction, most
recently and in the past, in which this country has moved in the
international arena . But also what moves they
(White House/Congress) have made domestically. I too, was raised during
a time when things were more simple, honest and open.......a time whenCapitalism was
something seen as not good, scary, and breeding greed. It was right up there
with Communism, and Fascism. The temptation was too great for the
corporate world and the greed-heads. As the evolution of the USA progressed,
the corporate ideology gained power and soon domestic
control - inevitably, reaching Globalization.Materialism is
now the vehicle to the American Dream....... and from where I stand, the
father of corruption when it becomes obsessive - now the standard for most
corporations. Corporate interests are not the interests of the common man, therefore they cannot be spokesmen for the middle
class. Those doing more for corporations than for middle class Americans
should be expelled from the White House, Congress and otherpositions at the
public podium. They should be replaced this November by civilian
intellectuals who are in touch with the common persons who make up the real
people with real needs.

The appliance
chosen by great empires toward dominance has always included military and
war. Consequently, all the great empires with which I am familiar have
self-destructed. It appears that path that the right-wing think tanks,
concerning world affairs, have led to a weakening of America, through
miscalculation and misjudgment and mismanagement, most likely using corporate
ideology as a basis, instead of Humanitarian motifs. One would think that
after observing world history, Diplomacy and Philanthropy would finally be
realized as the most humane option...... perhaps breeding world peace and
health - and eliminating hunger. But, call me an Idealist!

Al Molina

Phil Flanigan is a jazz bassist, living in Syracuse, New York.
Phil, originally from Geneva, NY, (hometown to another jazz bassist, Scott LaFaro) moved to NYC in 1976 after a year at New England
Conservatory and a year playing regional gigs with Scott Hamilton. Living in
New York (1976-19890, Phil played with numerous Jazz artists, among them
Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, Scott Hamilton, Ruby Braff, John Bunch, Warren Vachι,
Maxine Sullivan, Helen Humes, and Rosemary Clooney.
He moved to Florida (1989-2000), working with Eddie Higgins, Ira Sullivan,
and Allan Vachι. In 2001, Phil returned to
Syracuse, but travels frequently to play with various artists such as Allan Vachι, Harry Allen, John Sheridan, Bob Sneider, Bill Dobbins, Warren Vachι
and others. In addition to playing and teaching, Phil enjoys studying the
gold market and allied subjects and is an advocate for monetary education. He
writes:

Marvin,

First- I'm
very much looking forward to doing some playing with you and the others atNed Corman'sSwing n
Jazz. That'll be a blast, as always. And thank
goodness for Ned and his event. Because of it I got a really sweet chance to
hang with Keeter one last time. Of course, I didn't
know it would be the last time I was to see him. It was a beautiful hang - we
discussed things I never thought I would with him that time, and I must say I
really appreciate having had the chance to do so. He was a beautiful cat, and
is missed by many.

Second- bravo
on the "political" article. Thank you for having the integrity to
speak up! I'm encouraged by the fact that as I write, three state
legislatures have initiated impeachment actions. But if I may say how I
really feel - actually how I feel isn't important in the grand scheme. I wish
more had the chutzpah to say that - despite the fact that hordes of
psychologists have trained us to say "I feel" instead of "I
think" - Lord knows we could use a little more thinking and a little
less feeling right now.

My point is
that a little-noticed but important aspect of "what's wrong" is
just that.....we've become so self-absorbed and compulsively self-involved
that we find it hard to empathize with others in the world. In fact, just
trying to talk to many Americans about issues beyond their body or
possessions or their immediate little world can be an exercise in futility,
if the person can go there at all. Many will reflexively label you as a
______ or a _______ just for having the temerity to be curious about a
subject. I blame television, or, rather, what issues forth from that neutral
piece of technology which could be used for tremendous good. So that means I
blame those who control the information coming from the TV, as well as those
who are still watching, inviting unethical people by the truckload into their
homes, and paying a cable company for the privilege!

OK, so the
media bosses are a BIG part of the problem. They're selling government
propaganda and actively "training" people how to think - which is
actually more of a Pavlovian knee-jerk reflexive
conditioning which is going on. They're getting us to "feel" and
react rather than encouraging us to think things through. It's an obvious,
timeless truth that when a government is encouraging folks to feel rather
than think, you can bet a little thought applied to the situation would
enable you to see through the scams and manipulations.

I'm so happy
that people are waking up to the fact that it IS POSSIBLE for their
government to be corrupt. Or parts of it. This realization is aided by
another - that the "government" is just a bunch of guys - not some monolithic
parent-deity. Yet another is that it's always been just a bunch of guys, and
that putting too much faith in other people (as in various bunches o' guys)
can be dangerous. But in getting there - to that realization, one begins to
appreciate what a good job was done by a bunch of guys in 1775-1776 who had
their flaws and hypocrisies, yet took the time to fight the urge to
"feel" reflexively (some of the founding fathers couldn't stand
each other) and instead thought it through and persevered in their amazingly
high goal of creating an ideal which could be applied to life and governance
to make things more equitable, peaceful, just, and prosperous. Our beautiful
Constitution is a product of thought, not of "feeling". I've never
read Thomas Jefferson saying: "I felt a little anxious, a little
overwhelmed, but really, really angry..."

So what I
feel, I contend, is of little importance. It's just not important outside of
my own subjective little world, where it IS important. What IS important
about bigger issues is what I think. I hold thought up to being King -
certainly over emotion. Just look at music, at improvisers. The first tier of
players you dig are the ones whose sound and "feel" you like -
obviously, it's hard to enjoy a player whose thing doesn't feel good! But the
next level up from there are the ones who tickle your soul with the beauty of
well crafted ideas ... abrupt ideas
smooth flowing ideas all the millions of possible ideas! In
fact, I submit that you first must have the idea to "have a good
sound" or the idea to "have a good feel". So thought and
thinking are good.

This is just
exactly what the "powers that be" don't want us to do - think for
ourselves, read and understand history (real history), and understand our
place in it. If we understood where we are today (instead of where we think
we are ooooh! there's that
word again!) and more importantly how we got here, (to this sad state of
affairs) they know we'd revolt overnight, so enraged would we be by the
truth. It is for that very reason that they have eased us into unthinking.

Suspending
who "they" is for the time being, you might ask how is it possible
to get control of a nation's thinking. Well, it must be possible, because here
we are! Seriously, it IS possible and HAS been done, at first one would think
pretty cleverly, but as one looks at it, it actually appears pretty
ham-fisted. The difference is if anyone is paying attention - if you're
paying attention, it's obvious and sloppy. If you're
eye is untrained, chances are you'll never see it. You might sorta "sense" it - you'll kinda
"know something isn't quite right," but putting your finger on it
will be difficult.

Well, I'm
sorry I took up your challenge to respond to your brave article! Ha! I guess
because I know I've found the root cause of most of our present societal ills
(I don't "believe" it, I know it!), it is exceedingly difficult for
me to hold back what I've learned ask some of my closer
friends! They say I sound like a broken record, but I accept that designation
with pride, because it means I'm tirelessly repeating my message ...
hopefully until the reality of it sinks in.

I came across
it by being the friend of a guy who edits a newsletter for a precious metals
market insider. Actually it's more like a blog, as it is daily, but it's
classy like a high-end newsletter. The site is http://LeMetropoleCafe.com.
It discusses in painful detail the manipulation of the gold (and silver and
the Precious Metals and other commodities) market by the banks, Fed, COMEX,
SEC, various government entities, etc. That's where my investigation started,
and once I got broadband, I was off! LeMetropoleCafe.com is a
subscription site.......the ONLY one I've joined! Anyway, with what's
called the GATA perspective, things start to make sense in a hurry. (GATA is
the Gold Anti-Trust Action committee - http://gata.org/)
Basically, if you "follow the money" historically, you'll have all
your answers, sad and mundane as it is - damn, I was hoping it would be
mystical aliens performing magic rituals on our hair-covered heads! But
alas, it ain't guys from Zeta Reticuli
- it's Alan Greenspan and, now, Ben Bernanke. But
historically, JP Morgan is still having an astounding effect on our lives
(and it ain't a good one). I hardly know where to
begin, but this is where I usually refer people to get an intro to the
subject. http://fame.org/) Of course, that could take you months -
even so I encourage reading everything at that site, and GATA.org,

Thankfully,
some are grabbing ahold of the subject now. Aaron Russo is the producer of
the movie "The Rose" with Bette Midler, among others. He actually
was a rock 'n' roll producer way back when. Check out his brand new
test-market movie trailer - http://www.freedomtofascism.com/

OK that's
enough. See you in about a month in Roch!Best-Phil

Edward
Hoffman has enjoyed a 35 year career in symphony orchestras and is presently
the asst. principal trumpet of the Baltimore Symphony. Before joining Baltimore
in 1981 he was a member of the North Carolina and Phoenix Orchestras. Ed is a
graduate of Lawrence University where he majored in theory and composition.
He received a MM degree from New England Conservatory. His major
teachers were RenoldSchilke,
Roger Voisin, Rick Metzger, and James Stamp. Ed
also teaches at Peabody Institute and is the trumpet coach for the Asian
Youth Orchestra based in Hong Kong. He writes:

In response
to your article "How do I Feel", I am glad
that you posted such a thought- provoking monologue. I wish more people
would take the time to speak out against corruption, lies, and deceit in our
government and society. As a person who travels overseas often, you
must see the contempt with which our country is held throughout the world
because of our failure to uphold those principles of human rights that we
used to stand for. Frankly, I think that we're too far along the road
to ruin to turn back, and it's pitiful to think that our children and
grandchildren will have to pay dearly for our government's lack of fiscal
responsibility.

Leon Nedbalek graduated from the University of North Texas in
1957 with a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Master of Music in Theory.
He played trumpet in the concert and marching bands, and the symphony and
operaorchestras.
Leon entered U.S. Air Force immediately after graduation, flying several
types of jet aircraft and completing in 1966 one hundred combat missions over
North Vietnam. He flew for local commercial airlines until 1987, then owned and
operated a small printing shop in Central Oahu until 2003. He writes:

Hi, Marvin:

I read your
article last night and again just now. Your reluctance to put such words into
print is apparent, and you seem to be rather concerned about the reactions
you may receive from friends and acquaintances. But I believe (hope? trust?)
that you will be pleasantly surprised, even by some you might place at the
"conservative" end of thepolitical
spectrum.

The pendulum
seems about to reverse, much to the credit of responsible conservatives, some
of whom have "Senator" or "Representative" in front of
their names. It would be destructive to have an extended period of
conservative-bashing. The people who have brought us to this state are not
true conservatives -- they're something else!

Being
conservative is not the same as being incompetent and arrogant, a destructive
combination which can afflict liberals as well. But arrogant incompetence is
what this administration has shown time and again, at home and abroad. Many conservatives,
some thoughtful "hawks," and an unprecedented number of retired
generals are expressing dismay at the wasteful dissipation of our nation's
economic and military strength to say nothing of our goodwill and former
position of moral leadership.

I won't even
get started on the religious angle -- mainly wanted to give you the
perspective of a friend who spent the first 21 years after North Texas flying
for the Air Force, including combat in Vietnam.

Harry Smallenburg is a musician (vibes, drums, trombone,
arranging/composing) with a PhD in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA in
photography. Over the past 35 years, he has taught at Wayne State
University and the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, and Pasadena City
College and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He has been
teaching Bible as Literature for at least ten years, and spent at least eight
or nine years teaching History of Scientific Ideas. He writes:

"Passion"--thanks
for the thoughtful comments. I totally agree with you--not only
musicians, as you point out, but anyone who does something that doesn't bring
immediate fulfillment has to be doing it out of a sense of passion, whether
it's chess, or practicing, or photography, or, in the ancient
world--prophecy--I think all these activities have in common the sense that
one is "in the zone"--one of my favorite ways of describing (and
seeing described) music at a very high level. I'm sure you're there all
the time--I even think, that if we're going to have entities which can't be proven
in any empirical way, the "zone" or the "groove" has got
to be one of them. The groove seems to be something that exists apart,
but that musicians enter into and share together during the act of
performance.

One of the
nice things about your writing is having someone articulate these less
tangible aspects of music. Must contribute to your work as a
clinician--you can talk about music in
philosophic/aesthetic/existential/emotional terms--not just technique.

Morris Repass is an old friend from my days at the University of
North Texas. When I was a student at UNT, Morris was the bass trombonist with
the Dallas Symphony and first-call for all the recording work in that city.
Morris has lived for many years in Los Angeles where he is one of the most
sought-after bass trombonists on the L. A. scene. He writes:

Hi Marv, my
friend,I love your web
site and look forward to each issue. Just a few of my thoughts, not necessarily in response to this particular issue but
a general one. In my very fortunate years in music business of 10 years in
the Dallas Symphony and 39 yrs. and still counting in the studios of
Hollywood, I keep running into the same problem with the academia world of
music and jazz in particular.

Every month
here in Hollywood there are many many musicians who
are just out of college and eager to jump into music business. They are
wonderful players and I enjoy playing with them in the free rehearsal bands
we have at the Musicians Union rehearsal rooms. I am afraid there is a
difference in the academia outlook on music business and the reality of the
business world of music. When I arrived in Hollywood
in 1966 there were many jobs in the studios: variety TV shows that
each had and ORCHESTRA (not synthesizers), there were many filmed TV shows
which used ORCHESTRAS (not synthesizers), and many more movies that were
scored HERE, not overseas or in NON UNION SEATTLE or in Canada where the
money exchange rate gives the producers a great break on the dollar.

I am
fortunate enough to be in the orchestra (34 pieces) of The Simpsons TV
show--our 17th season!! This is an anomaly however! Therefore I believe the
university and college instructors should get off campus now and then and
find out what is really happening in the BUSINESS OF MUSIC. I send this not
in a message of doom but a message of stating what is REALLY happening in the
business of music today in 2005. I love playing and will do so as long as I
can sound good on my ax because I love it with a PASSION.

Lynn
Seaton has had a stellar career as a jazz bassist. From 1980-1984 he was the
house bassist at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club in Cincinnati. He joined Woody
Herman in 1984 and the Count Basie Orchestra in 1985. After two years touring
with the Basie Band, he did extended tours with Tony Bennett and George
Shearing, 1991 and 1992 were spent touring with Monty Alexander. Lynn was a
member of the Jeff Hamilton Trio from 1995-1999, but also free-lanced.
with many of the great jazz musicians, including: Toshiko Akiyoshi,
Buck Clayton, Al Cohn, Kenny Drew Jr, Harry Sweets
Edison, Herb Ellis, Frank Foster, Freddy Green, Tim Hagans,
Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Marian McPartland Mark
Murphy, and many others. Lynn lived in New York from 1986-1998, accepting an
offer in 1998 to teach at University of North Texas, home to one of the
largest jazz programs in the world. In addition to his teaching, he contibnues a busy free-lance career. Lynn has three
recordings as a leader, Bassmans Basement, Solo Flights, Puttin
on the Ritz, and has performed on over 100 other recordings. He writes:

Hi Marvin,

I just
finished reading your essay, "Words of Meaning". It was
fantastic. You write so eloquently on many topics in Cadenzas, but I
was particularly moved by this one. I relate very strongly to your
experience and words. I too have a collection of art books and have
enjoyed museums and am inspired by stories of artists in many fields.
The words you chose to elaborate on in the discourse are indeed important
ones not only for artists, but enlightened humans everywhere. You have
clearly stated what so many of us feel. I wish that the parents
who ask me about their kid's future in music could read this article.

In Response to: AllAboutJazz
Interview

Patrick
Hennessey is one of Hawaii's busiest free-lance musicians, performing with
many of the most noted organizations and entertainers in the state. After
previous tenures in his home town of New Orleans, then Las Vegas and Los
Angeles, Patrick settled in Honolulu, where, in addition to his free-lancing,
he has directed the jazz ensemble program at the University of Hawaii for the
past 22 years. He writes:

Hi Marvin,I don't know if
you remember me (Patrick Hennessey). I direct the jazz ensemble program at
the University of Hawaii and we've spoken on several occasions, including Abe
Weinstein's jazz festival. The last time we spoke was at Chuck McAlexander's place. I've always enjoyed our
conversations tremendously.

After reading
your comments in the latest edition of Cadenzas, I have to say that once
again you've hit a home run. I have had my differences with IAJE in recent
years, even though I continue to maintain my membership. The organization
seems more out of touch than ever and seems to base its success on its own
ever-expanding girth and promoting the old boy network than working at the
grass roots level (the way it started out). After working with IAJE official
to find ways that the organization could help my students, I found that they
offered no more than I could provide and have already achieved (other than
providing a nice magazine for the students to read). I sincerely hope IAJE
sheds its own arrogance someday and uses its tremendous resources for greater
outreach.

I also found
your comments on learning to improvise interesting as well. Since I am
running out of time (gotta get to a gig), I'll be
brief. I agree and understand the point you are making. However, I have
always tried to differentiate between an improvisor
and a jazz musician. I think it is possible for us (the teachers) to provide
technical information and advice to the student to help him/her develop their improvisational skills, but it is up
to the student musician to develop those skills beyond merely the
improvisational level to play anything meaningful, and I believe it is at
this stage that you are right on the button again. From this stage practice,
listening, hard work, talent, and ears take over.

Thanks again,
Marvin, for your insights. I look forward to meeting again sometime soon,
even if it is at an IAJE event.

Steve
Salerno is an award-winning essayist and author whose work on pop culture,
social institutions, entertainment, and media has appeared in Harper's,
The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, the Wall Street
Journal, and other top publications. He has written three non-fiction
books, one of which, Deadly Blessing, became the TV movie "Bed of
Lies" (Warner Bros., 1992). His latest publication is his forthcoming
book for Crown Publishing,Sham: How
the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless. Salerno was an honorary
professor of journalism at Indiana University, and now teaches writing at
Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His early years were spent
playing lesser clubs and other gigs in the NYC area (various reeds), and he
remains an avid follower of jazz, as well as music of all genres. He writes:

I'm writing,
now, in reply to your provocative comments under "Thoughts N
Things." Though I generally agree with the perspectives you present--and
I am willing to acknowledge that in many ways we do live in frightening
times--I also think that the reality is more complex and nuanced than you
seem to allow for. So I hope you will permit me my devil's advocacy, as
follows.

Your basic
position is rooted in a common misunderstanding of what the U.S. Constitution
does, and does not, prohibit. The Constitution stipulates only that the
government may not infringe upon free speech (and even then, there are
exclusions, the classic examples being the case of yelling "fire"
in a movie theater, or one's expression of a desire to assassinate the U.S.
president). In many other cases, however, we-the-people are free to infringe
upon each other's speech, especially in an employment or commercial setting.
If you were to take a job in the Tonight Show band, and GE (which, of course,
is NBC's corporate parent) were to hear that you made an offhand remark to
some reporter that was critical of GE's business practices, the network could
fire you with impunity, and you would have no recourse at all under
"free speech" rights. In fact, employment contracts frequently (if
not typically) contain all sorts of provisions limiting a worker's degree of
what we popularly call free speech.

Even in the instance
you cite--IMAX's decision to cave to perceived pressure by Christian
groups--let us not forget that the final choice about whether or not to show
the film fell to IMAX, and IMAX alone. To my knowledge, nobody showed up at
IMAX's corporate headquarters with a bazooka; in all likelihood, the movie
chain simply made a risk-benefit assessment about what financial liability it
could afford to bear in presenting controversial material to the American
public. (And further, IMAX probably would have made a different decision, had
the chain's executives not thought that the majority sentiment was on the
other side of the issue.) So perhaps you should be less angry with the
"social climate" that produced IMAX's decision to flinch, and more
angry with IMAX itself for lacking the cojones to buck the tenor of the
times. Finally, let me throw another hypothetical at you: Even if the music
itself were sublimely beautiful and worthy of being heard, would you, Marvin,
play in a concert that celebrated Nazism? Segregation? Or would you worry
about the possible career repercussions that might follow on the heels of
your decision to participate in that "free exchange of ideas"?

It's easy to
celebrate "art" and "free thought" in the abstract. But
when the nature of that art or those ideas hits close to home, things get a
bit stickier sometimes.

**
Marvins response:

While I do
not usually respond to commentary on this page, I feel compelled to do so in
this case because there were several statements or questions directed to
me.

Regarding Mr.
Salernos last paragraph, I agree that, to some
extent, we do celebrate art
and free thought in the abstract
rather than doing so in reality. But why? Why can we not celebrate these
things in reality as long as we do so
honestly, with sensitivity and respect for one another?

Though I am
no constitutional scholar and I may not have stated the exact legalities of
the Constitutional guarantees, I believe the statements in my article ring
true  true enough that Im
sure most everyone knew what I was trying to convey. And though the
Constitution may stipulate only that the government may not infringe upon
free speech (except in dangerous situations like those cited above), we are
nevertheless guaranteed freedom of speech and expression.

It is also
true that voicing an opinion, expressing how one feels, might subject the
speaker to criticism, ostracism, and other forms of strong disagreement. No
one can ever be sure that there isnt a price to be paid
for this right, this freedom. But what if people like Tom Paine, Patrick
Henry, Abraham Lincoln, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, and so many
others hadnt taken the risk to speak out? Some of us
strongly feel that taking that risk, exercising our right of free speech to
speak out against those things we feel are an infringement on our American
way of life, is a risk worth taking.

It is true,
as Mr. Salerno points out, that companies many times infringe on employees
right of free speech. At the same time, any employee facing possible employer
retaliation must decide whether or not the situation justifies voluntarily
limiting his right to free speech. The decision to speak up or remain silent,
whatever the penalty may be, ultimately lies with the employee.

Similar
rationale can also be applied to IMAXs role in this
discussion. I agree with Mr. Salerno that IMAX allowed itself to be
intimidated. He is correct that no one showed up with a bazooka, and, of
course, that IMAX made this decision based on financial considerations. It is
also true that most firms, especially entertainment firms, lack any hint of
cojones when it comes to things like this. Though I might not have been clear
about my feelings regarding IMAXs lack of conviction
or principle, it DOES piss me off - just as much as does the existing social
climate to which IMAX is bowing. But can anyone these
days believe that showing scientific films about the earths
development is truly presenting unproven, controversial material to the
American public? In light of all that I read and hear, I guess they may!

But do the
people intimidating IMAX represent the majority sentiment - or is it just the
group that cries the loudest? I believe statistics show that these people
represent approximately twenty-five percent of our population. But as many of
us who DO speak out know, the vast majority of Americans - either out of
apathy or fear of bringing attention to themselves 
sadly to say, are silent.

Regardless,
none of this lessens my feelings about the social climate
and the ideological political powers that either promote or support this social
climate. What is just as disturbing to me is that I
dont believe the political powers-that-be
are sincere in their religious fervor. I believe that most of these people
are dishonest about their beliefs and are viciously using peoples
religious passion for their own personal and political gain.

Finally,
regarding the hypothetical situation:

Even
if the music itself were sublimely beautiful and worthy of being heard, would
you, Marvin, play in a concert that celebrated Nazism? Segregation? Or would
you worry about the possible career repercussions that might follow on the
heels of your decision to participate in that free exchange of ideas?

I can answer
this by saying that as it is any presenters privilege to stage
such a concert, it is my right to refuse to perform in such a concert. And
though it is my right to refuse, it is not my right to prevent anyone
else from doing so, even if I may strongly disagree and try to convince them
otherwise. I have always spoken out against racism and the other
discriminatory isms; the Supreme Court,
however, has affirmed the rights of groups like the Ku Klux Klan, white
supremacists, and neo-Nazi groups to espouse their views. That being the
case, it is for those of us who oppose them to speak out, hoping that our
voices will be heard more strongly and listened to more fervently than those
of the KKK and its like.

Finally, as
anyone who knows me can attest, I have never let career considerations
silence me. I have always spoken out about things I believe to be wrong, even
when it is sometimes to my own detriment. I refuse to be afraid to express
aloud or in writing how I feel. And if I am proved to be wrong, I know only
too well how to apologize. But right or wrong, I am glad to be counted among
those who are willing to speak out.

Harry Smallenburg is a musician (vibes, drums, trombone,
arranging/composing) with a PhD in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA in
photography. Over the past 35 years, he has taught at Wayne State
University and the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, and
Pasadena City College and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena,
California. He has been teaching Bible as Literature for at least ten
years, and spent at least eight or nine years teaching History of Scientific
Ideas. He writes:

Thanks for
your comments on these issues. One problem in the country today is that
people with more enlightened, educated ideas are not speaking up. They seem
to be running in fear of the so-called "religious right."

I've taught
Bible as Literature, and I've taught History of Scientific Ideas, so I've had
a chance to see these issues from both sides. It's always amazing to me
that, after a course in which we look at scholarly approaches to the Bible
which are consistent with an educated scientific perspective, students will
insist on taking the Bible literally with respect to creation, the Flood,
Adam and Eve, etc. They will ask where Adam and Eve fall in the
history-of-the-universe timelines a scientific perspective offers.

But then it
requires some intellectual fortitude and a willingness to read difficult
material in order to grasp the scientific perspective. The religious
perspective can be had without much work--in fact, I've seen more than once
handbooks that refer to themselves as "handy-dandy evolution
confuters." If they are one's only introduction to the issues and
the arguments, education will never happen. They routinely misrepresent the
arguments of major scientists, going so far as to take a statement here and
there to supposedly "prove" that the scientist in question doesn't
really believe in evolution. I saw one scientist enlisted on the
creationist side who I knew for a fact, from reading his material, was an
evolutionist, as any serious scientist would have to be. Another sneaky
tactic in arguments against evolution is for the religious writers to prefix
the word "Darwinian" to "evolution." They can then
say that current scientists often reject "Darwinian
evolution." The ordinary reader doesn't realize that these same
scientists assume the truth of evolution, but have modified the description
of its mechanism from the description Darwin himself gave. So,
technically it's true--"Darwinian
evolution" has been "rejected," but evolution itself as a
concept has not. There is also the insistence on calling evolution a
"theory," as if to imply that it therefore is not a
"fact." Creationists conveniently neglect the variety of
kinds of scientific activity that supports evolution, like genetics and
microbiology. They depend on people being ignorant and hope to keep them that
way.

Your
commentary about the intimidation of the religious right touched a
nerve. Thanks again for speaking up publicly. That takes some
courage. And I try to read your mailings regularly.

Kenny
Berger - is a marvelous Jazz baritone saxophone player as well as a great doubler on bass clarinet and bassoon. He is one of the in-demand
musicians in NYC and plays with so many of the most important names in Jazz.
He writes:

Hi
Marvin:

I couldn't
agree more with your comments on the Religious Right's crusade of
intimidation. The amazing thing is how you were able to address this issue
and retain your usual levels of compassion and decorum. After thirty seconds
on that subject, I usually end up sounding like one of Bob Brookmeyer's virtuoso diatribes, only angrier. One
dilemma that many intelligent people are wrestling with these days is whether
or not, as open minded, thinking human beings, we are required to show
tolerance to pathologically intolerant people. How can you avoid offending
people who believe a shitload of things, yet actually know very little and
have no interest in learning anything they don't already believe? The answer
is, you can't. Does this mean that in the face of
such dogma, the rest of us should just fold up our principles like so many
cheap suitcases and slink away? Apparently the IMAX owners believe so as does
most of the mainstream news media. They allow themselves to be bullied by
people who yearn for a return to nineteenth century economics and fourteenth
century theology without ever questioning these people's largely unfounded
beliefs. Arguing with people such as these is about as useful as trying to
convince someone raving in the NYC subways that, no; the world is not going
to end next Tuesday. The Christian Right's current campaign against an
independent judiciary is starting to give the old cry of "kill the
umpire" frightening new meaning. The right to keep on offending people
who find offense in any opinion or lifestyle other than the one that they
themselves have always unquestioningly accepted may the most important and,
dare I say, sacred right we have left.

Jack
Bowers is a retired newspaper writer/editor, living in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. Jack now reviews Jazz CDs for Cadence and Jazz Improv magazines and online at www.allaboutjazz.com.
He writes:

Hi Marvin

I believe
that the root cause of one group's coercion of another to deny the free
expression of opinion is the fear that the controlling group's
counter-opinion won't stand up under close scrutiny. It's fine to believe in
"creationism," but unfortunately for those who do,
the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence points exactly in the other
direction. So rather than presenting facts to bolster one's beliefs, it's
much easier simply to make sure that opposing views aren't heard or taken
seriously. That is one of the more disturbing trends in our country, and it
begins at the top. As you pointed out, Hitler and his fascist allies knew
well the power of the "big lie," a power that hasn't been lost on
those who would abridge our rights and freedoms to serve their own purpose, whatever
that may be. I may not be too bright, but I know when I'm being lied to. It
is disheartening to see that millions of my fellow Americans apparently are
unable to grasp the difference between truth and falsehood.

Melvin
Gordy is a well-known residential building designer, born and raised in
Texas. He's also a former trumpet player who was among the first group of
students of John Haynie at North Texas State
College, now the University of North Texas. Whenever a "Haynie Alumni Event" occurs, it always falls to Mel
Gordy to organize the event, bringing us all together again. Without Melvin's
efforts, the rest of us might be "wandering in the dark." He
writes:

Marvin,

That
"New York Times" article disturbs me too. I've always enjoyed and
appreciated these shows produced by IMAX. Their programs are well
thought-out, presented with great care, and are backed-up with scientific
data. To me, the IMAX editors/producers go out of their way to cite all their
sources. Remember Dr. Hibbard, music history professor at UNT, always said,
"Don't give me a fact without its source." Same is true here. So I
agree with you. The "IMAX" group canceling those scientific films
really concerns me.

Virginia, my
wife, has a PhD. in science (biology) and finds it hard to believe anyone would
think these IMAX documentary films are blasphemous. Any group wanting to have
IMAX discontinue these scientific films is unacceptable. First, you can't
argue with a group of nuts (sorry for the name calling) as it seems they've
already closed their minds and simply will not listen. So, we're just wasting
time trying to discuss anything with them. Now I find that is really
disturbing.

I hope the
IMAX Corporation will continue showing scientific films in the future and not
cave to these narrow-mined non-thinking groups.

I appreciate
your newsletter.

Ray Vega
is a veteran of the bands of Tito Puente, Ray Barretto,
Mongo Santamaria, Mario Bauza,
Luis "Perico" Ortiz, Hector LaVoe, Johnny Pacheco, Pete "El Conde"
Rodriguez, and Louie Ramirez to name a few. He's also recorded and performed
with jazz greats Joe Henderson, Lionel Hampton, and Mel Torme.
Ray has now established himself as one of the innovators of the New York Jazz
trumpet scene. A multi-talented trumpeter, percussionist, composer, and
arranger, he presents Jazz from a refreshingly original and contemporary
perspective. He writes:

Marvin,

I wanted to
commend you on your article concerning the IMAX theaters. It saddens me
greatly to see how a few have totally pulled the wool over the eyes of an
entire nation. Hopefully the people will eventually wake up from their
drunken stupor brought upon by an over dose of ignorance and arrogance.

Greg
McLean is a trumpeter, composer and arranger and one of Atlanta's busiest
musicians. As a composer, he has written three pieces for The Atlanta
Symphony Brass Quintet and recently completed "The Twain Have Met"
(Editions-BIM), a concerto for Dennis Najoom and
me. This piece is written for two trumpets - Jazz soloist, classical soloist
- and symphony orchestra. Greg performs in a variety of musical genres, but
prefers the expressive freedom of Jazz. He co-leads The Greg
McLean/Geoff Haydon Jazz Quartet with pianist Geoff Haydon. Their debut
CD, "Cabin Fever," is available on the ACA Digital label. In
addition to a busy performing schedule, McLean is a full-time Instructor of
Music at Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta. You can find out more
about Greg at his web site: www.gregmclean.net. He writes:

Marvin,

I enjoyed the
latest Cadenzas and was impressed that you traversed the skinny limb
of religion and politics. As the son of a former Methodist minister, I
too am appalled by the current political climate. I find the most
distressing part of it is that the current ruling class doesn't care one whit
about honest debate of the issues. They control the entire US
government and now seek to take away the "filibuster" from the
Senate. Not to mention that their claims of a "culture of life" are
a complete scam. I too fear that the ideologically driven forces are
attempting to shut down any question of their motives or actions regardless
of how it harms us personally or as a nation.

Anyway,
thanks for taking an enlightened and sensible stand.

In Response to: January Tour
With Bill Mays

Lew Polsgrove, as a teenager, played saxophone in several big
bands around Galveston, Texas, his home town. He also attended the University
of North Texas, playing tenor for a couple of years in one of the lab bands.
After a 25-year hiatus pursuing a professional career in psychology and an
academic career in special education (children's emotional and behavioral
disorders), Lew returned to playing. He began playing with a blues band
around Bloomington, Indiana, and also co-founded the Two-Five-One Trio which
appears regularly at various Bloomington venues. Lew has also been involved
with Jazz from Bloomington
serving as Treasurer and Chair of the Funding and Development Chair. He writes:

Nice article,
Marvin. Plus, I enjoyed your musings about what we jazz players feel
and think about our music. Such a soulful analysis is rare and
moving.

I've been intending
to write you for several months now about your appearance in
Bloomington. You know, I enjoy hearing players who've mastered their
horns and who can play fast and hard and outside and cleverly, and freely--
all that stuff. But frankly, after listening to and hour or so of such testosterone-laden fare, I'm left
emotionally bereft and tuned out. Too many of today's jazz
artists seem to assume paying homage to jazz tradition and expressing the
spirituality of the music is secondary in importance to displaying
dazzling technique and "doing one's own thing."
But you guys capture the very soul of jazz, playing so sensitively,
tastefully, and intimately that the audience absorbs --not just hears-- every
note. As I'm writing this, I'm hearing in my mind that incredibly pure
sound of your flugelhorn, Bill's thoughtful responses, Rufus's and Steve's
embellishments. So your music stays with listeners. In sum, it's
just, well, seminal.

"Jazz
from Bloomington" has hosted a number of concerts over the last five
years. These have been studded with jazz headliners, really amazing
players. But you guys blew our audience completely away, man.
People whom I steered to attend your concert are still remembering it to me
as, "The best jazz concert I've ever heard;" "It was just amAZing;" and asking, "When are they coming
BACK?"

I hope you
come back soon.

In Response to: The
Kids Play Great! But That Music

Norm Wallen is a composer, arranger and teacher who earned his
bachelors and masters
degrees from Central Washington University. He studied with Paul Creston,
Robert Panerio, John Moawad,
and John Rinehart. Norm has been a public school educator since 1976,
teaching bands, orchestras, and choirs, grades 4-12, for the Seattle, Yakima,
and Tumwater school systems in Washington State. He is a frequent adjudicator
for both instrumental and vocal festivals. Norm directed the
award-winning Pierce College Jazz Ensemble for eight years and currently
fronts his own jazz big band in Olympia, WA. He was principal trombonist for
the Yakima Symphony Orchestra for nine years and has also performed with many
national artists. Norm has written more than 1,500 self-published
compositions and arrangements spanning the broad spectrum of jazz and classical
idioms. His works have been performed at the IAJE Conventions as well as Jazz
festivals such as those at Newport, Monterrey, Montreaux,
North Sea, and Pori. He writes:

Marvin:

As a music
teacher in my 28th year with students, fourth grade through college, and a
composer of well over 1,500 compositions and arrangements, this article did
indeed strike plenty of raw nerves for me. I was going to send a response
directly to Budiansky, but in viewing his website
it appears he has already been assailed by some of our best musical and
educational minds. I doubt there is much I could add. It is a shame we dont
have access to those emails both pro and con so we could draw our own
conclusions on the validity of the claims from both sides of the issue.

It is
important to view the follow-up response at his website. I could write
volumes on nearly every Budiansky sentence in
either article, but for the sake of relative brevity I'll stick to a few main
topics and 1600 words.

Budiansky titles that follow-up
article in part "what we can do about it," (it being bad music) but
nowhere does he describe how we are to accomplish this within the current
education climate and constraints. He shows his age, and writes like someone
completely out of touch with the realities of modern music education:

"I had
never been able to understand why so much mediocre music written specifically
for school performance was pushing aside famous works by great composers, and
folk music, and genuine contemporary music..."

Leaving aside
his personal definitions of "good" and "bad" for the
moment, Budiansky seems to believe we have a choice
as music teachers. Frequently we don't. Many of the good pieces of music he
describes are and have been off limits to educators for quite some time. It
is a separation of church and state issue.

For instance,
my elementary students know zero Christmas carols like Jingle Bells, and they
haven't for many years. We don't perform songs about holidays, or patriotic songs,
and absolutely nothing written for the church, especially if it refers to God
or Jesus in any language. That pretty much wipes out composers like JS Bach. Budiansky favorites like The Messiah, Nelson Mass, and
The Creation are sacred, and there is absolutely no place for music like that
in schools today. We can't risk the potential lawsuits. No, that music may
not be specifically "banned," but we are strongly encouraged to
program music that is secular and entirely non-confrontational.

Many of the things
Budiansky seems to hate are REQUIRED these
days. Everything I
teach day in day out MUST align with very specific state and national
objectives, and these objectives are cross-curricular and multi-cultural. I
don't have the time to go through Mozart operas searching for something that
might align with the 5th grade ecology unit, math week, or Kwanzaa, when that
piece must also teach directly to the required music benchmarks.

If I did find
something in Mozart, there is no mechanism in place for me to have some
national "expert" concur the piece I'm using addresses those
benchmarks appropriately. I've little choice but to use band and orchestra
method books and their correlated and suggested materials where that legwork
has already been done. If my clarinets are going "over the break"
on the 90th day of the school year in the benchmarks, I darned well better
follow a method designed to make that happen on the 90th day or I will lose
my job. If somebody would go through all that good music and align it with
current educational objectives so I could use it, that
would be great! Until somebody does that, and it has been approved at the
national level, I simply can't teach that music. I don't have a choice.

Budiansky also seems clueless
about modern musicians, composers, and copyright.

"That Piece is not written by any composer you have ever heard of --
not classical, not jazz You've never heard it on the radio, not even late at
night at the bottom of the dial. It in fact exists nowhere in the known music
universe -- except for the twilight zone of school musical performance. That
Piece is nearly always written by someone who (a) is alive and collecting royalties, and (b) has a master's degree in music
education...

"I
wasn't prepared for the extent to which such new and original works of great
mediocrity have completely supplanted the real music -- classical, folk,
Sousa marches, American popular music, Scott Joplin rags, Broadway show tunes
-- that was once a staple of the American school music curriculum."

I challenge Budiansky
to name a dozen living composers writing good music, especially music I can
use in the classroom. The major symphonyorchestras perform almost
exclusively the music of composers whove
been dead for at least 150 years. Nothing else fills the house, and as that
blue-haired audience slowly dies off, so are our major symphony orchestras.

Virtually no
composers can make a living writing good music when, due to the economics of
business, it is almost impossible to get it performed outside educational
circles. Educational circles are just about the only place you can hear any
new good music at all.

Most
composers must have a day non-composing job to feed their families. It makes perfect
sense our educators are the composers of today, as the only viable
performance opportunities involve the educational ensembles they direct. That
doesn't really represent a change, as all good composers of antiquity studied
under older good composers. Today we do it in school instead of under the
auspices of some patron or nobleman.

He also seems
unaware teachers in most states today are REQUIRED to have a masters
degree within five years of college graduation or lose their teaching
certificate. Thank goodness they have that degree and get royalties, although
I think you'd be surprised how little money the composers really make.

Exactly where
are these media outlets making money broadcasting good music like Sousa
marches, Joplin rags, and Broadway show tunes. Get
real! I live in the largest radio market in the country, and those stations
are nothere. We are lucky to have both a 24/7 jazz
station and "classical" station too. Our jazz station broadcasts
commercial-free from a university as part of NPR, and our classical station
from a self-sustaining private endowment. The market share enjoyed by these
good stations is virtually nil compared to the rest
of the market. The kind of good music Budiansky
describes was never broadcast regularly, even in the golden years of music
education. Why should we expect anything different with the good music of
today?

As a
professional writer, it is hard to believe Budiansky
is so naοve regarding copyright. Writing arrangements of Beatles songs is
ILLEGAL without permission. (And BTW, that particular permission is
controlled by Michael Jackson!) If you can manage to get permission, it is
nearly impossible to have your arrangement published by the copyright owners,
and copyright owners never allow arrangements not under their direct control
to be distributed in any form.

So lets
sum up here.

We cant
distribute arrangements of good music because of copyright issues. We cant
perform patriotic, holiday, or religious music in the public schools. Any
music we do perform must be cross-curricular and conform to strict and very
specific educational guidelines or benchmarks that take years to establish or
change. The only place composers can afford to have new music performed is in
the schools. You cant make a living solely as a composer of good
music, and the best alternative is to be some kind of educator so you have an
outlet for the performance of your music. Welcome to the 21st century Mr. Budiansky.

So is Budiansky entirely wrong? No, not at all! He's just wrong
about the reasons he's not hearing good music in the schools. There is a lot
of bad music out there masquerading under the pretense of good. There was a
lot of bad music written in Mozart's day too, it simply doesn't survive to
the present. All that bad music did and does help to define good music. Much
of the bad music he's hearing is not directly the fault of the composers or
educators, but the musical climate we live in today. Given the constraints,
some of these compositions he hates represent musical miracles.

What Budiansky is hearing is what I call a gigantic
"dumbing down" of music education. I judge
music contests and festivals a lot, and I can go entire weekends without
hearing a decent lead trumpet player operating above the staff, or a good
ad-lib solo on any instrument. I rarely hear decent charts either. I hear
generic-sounding drivel designed to meet educational benchmarks, and Budiansky is correct. It is killing good music.

I wish it
were easy as waving a Budiansky good-music magic
wand to change things. It isn't that simple. Educators don't have a lot of
choice about what they can program, and composers don't have a lot of choice
about what they write if it is to be published and performed. Educational
publishers won't publish music teachers aren't allowed to buy.

I've
dedicated my entire composing, arranging, and teaching career in attempting
to solve this conundrum I first recognized in the late '60s. As I reach the
end of my teaching career, I sense we may... just may... have bounced off
musical lows and are heading up again. Budiansky's
writings and the sentiment of the responses indicate frustrations are
reaching the boiling point within education and the general public too. That
usually marks the beginnings of change.

It may be too
late for my teaching career and Budiansky's
listening to school band concerts performed by his kids. I remain confident
this can be solved by the next generation.

Stanley
Friedman
- is a composer of operatic, orchestral and chamber works for brass and
other instruments. He has held principal trumpet positions with several
international orchestra. He frequently
performs and conducts his compositions at universities and music
festivals. He may be contacted through his website:
www.stanleyfriedman.com. He writes:

Marvin:

Budiinsky's essay is a beaut, and
I agree 100%. However, I think he's missing the point to blame the Music Ed
folks entirely. What about the "composers" who write this crap? So
many of those who call themselves composers these days apparently think that
simply calling themselves creative geniuses and having doctorates are
qualification enough. The soul-destroying scenes he describes in grade school
concerts are repeated ad nauseum in countless
university new music festivals and even at most major orchestra and opera
company world premieres. The result is that the concert-going public,
musicians, and impresarios no longer expect any better. Living composers are
expected to be awful, and if there is even a shred of redeeming value in a
new work, the piece gets a standing ovation and rave reviews, even though by
any reasonable standard the work is pretty mediocre. If a latter-day
Beethoven is indeed out there somewhere, he'll have to claw his way through
miles and miles of this dismal quagmire in hopes of getting a hearing.

Don Roeder
is a retired thoracic surgeon living in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is a
long time trumpet player, having been involved with many musical ventures
over the years. Currently, Don teaches trumpet, performs cornet solos with
the Carlisle Town Band, plays "Taps" at military funerals with the
Cumberland County Honor Guard [an all volunteer
organization], plays at various churches in the Carlisle area, and continues
to perform with the Dickinson College Orchestra and Symphonic Band. He
writes:

Marvin:

Thank you
again for the new edition of Cadenzas.

In regard to
the article, "The Kids Play Great! But That Music," there is but
one word to say -- and NO font could possibly be too large to express
it. That word is, of course, "AMEN!!" Thanks for
sharing it.

In Response to: Bootlegs

Craig Jolley started listening to jazz when musicians enjoyed
the luxury of spending their time playing. He grew up in a musical family and
learned about jazz through the typical schools of listening to records and
hearing the great New York players on their tours and occasionally in New
York. His musical appetite was also encouraged by surprisingly healthy jazz
environments in Las Vegas (Raoul Romero, Carl Saunders), the University of
Utah (Bill Fowler, Ladd McIntosh), Washington, D.C. (Shirley Horn, Bill
Potts, Andrew White, Martin Williams), and currently Los Angeles. He
occasionally writes for All About Jazz and for other publications. He
believes there is as much excellent music now as ever but feels those who
take their cues from Tower Records and from the radio are missing it.

Marvin,

I would like
to respond to your Cadenzas about bootleg recordings. First I should
say I am not a musician. I see myself as a jazz listener with a strong sense
of gratitude for jazz players. Of course, Im not as aware or as
sensitive about the problem as the musicians.

Your main
thrust as I understand it is that with the comparatively small economies
involved it is up to us fans to help enforce a ban against bootlegging jazz.
I mostly agree with you that surreptitious recording with subsequent
commercial release is not healthy. On the other hand I think most serious
musicians want their music heard. I speculate that Warne Marsh or Horace Parlan would not opt for silence as a primary component
of their legacies. In a way I see it as analogous to drug trafficking. Im
against widespread heroin distribution, but in a limited way I see some
benefit in smoking marijuana.

The problem
seems more critical for living musicians since bootlegging can put them into
a position of competing with themselves for their livelihoods. A compromise
solution might go something like wait a few years after a musician passes
before considering the purchase of a bootleg. Beyond that we (the fans) would
think about things like whether the bootleg seems a unique musical statement
or just a pale knock-off of a legitimate recording. The benefit of the doubt
would hopefully go to not purchasing.

Rob Fogle
has, for seventeen years, hosted his own radio show, "Some Experiences
in Jazz" in Toronto, Ontario. Over that time, he has interviewed or
talked to many artists. Among them are Stan Getz, Joe Williams, Sheila
Jordan, Jim Hall, Phil Woods, George Shearing, Susannah McCorkle, Ernestine
Anderson, Ken Peplowski, Joanne Brackeen,
Robert Farnon, Sweets Edison, Helen Merrill, Bill
Mays, Oscar Peterson, and almost every Canadian jazz artist - over 450 of
them. He has been a jazz fan since age ten, beginning with the Benny Goodman
78s, "Rose Room" and "Airmail Special." Erroll Garner is his all time
favorite, and he is a major Frank Sinatra collector, with over 400 CDs, much
sheet music, original radio shows, LPs, etc. Rob is also an amateur player on
vibes and piano and has sat
in on vibes with Pat LaBarbera,
Don Thompson, and others. He writes:

About Stan:

I first saw
him not in person, but on TV in a show that I think was called "Kenton
'55". I was about 13 or 14 at the time. The dynamic nature of this man
when he raised his arms and took control of his band left a lasting impression
on me. I saw the band in person several years after that date.

In October
1960 Stan and his band were appearing at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens with
his then wife, Ann Richards, on a fantastic double bill with Count Basie and
his band and singer Joe Williams. (Joe left the band 3 months later to go out
on his own; we later became good friends.

Anyway, a
friend of mine and I, two nineteen year olds, decided that we were going to
interview Basie and Kenton. We had interviewed Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond
a week before, but, other than that, we had no experience. We told a slight
fib, saying that we were from the university press and were able to set up a
conversation with each bandleader that same evening. I had a small plug-in
reel-to-reel tape recorder (this was long before cassettes), and we wrote out
some "teenage type questions." We spoke with the Count after his
set at half time in the concert and spoke Stan at the conclusion.

Mr. Kenton,
as we called him, was so giving to us two young guys and answered everything
forced upon him. It was World Series time, and we asked each leader who would
win baseball's classic. Basie's answer was, "Yanks, you kidding!"
Kenton was more articulate and said that the Yankees had won it too often,
and it would be good for baseball if Pittsburgh won. (Bill Masaroski hit the game- winning homer, and the Pirates
did win in, I believe, the seventh game.)

I still
have the tape of these classic conversations and transcribed them for a
magazine, "Big Band World" a few years ago. I saw the Kenton band
many times after that at Massey Hall, the Palais
Royal and other local venues. I guess I saw you while you were in the band
but honestly don't remember. I remember one time the late Dee Barton was
playing trombone and the next time that the band came to town he was the
drummer.Later into the
1970's, even when Stan was ill and Hank Levy and Buddy DeFranco
fronted the band, I always enjoyed their presentation. The band was always
filled with great enthusiasm. Stan actually died on my mother's birthday, Aug
25th, 1977.

(Ed. Note: I
was on the Kenton band at these performances. As a matter of fact, Dee Barton
and I were members of the North Texas One OClock Lab Band at the
same time, and, after joining the Kenton Band, I recommended that Stan bring
Dee on the band.)

On another
note, Woody's band was even a greater favorite of mine, and I do remember
clearly when you were in that band - I believe at the Palais
Royale. The late Phil MacKellar, a Toronto DJ and
friend of mine, considered Woody his closest buddy and usually MC'd these concerts. Later, in the 1970's, I rode the bus
with the Herd, a major thrill of mine.

So that's my
little trip down Memory Lane. Since I've been able to do a radio show (for no
financial remuneration I might add), I've been able to relive these days
through what I play on air.

Tom
Stevens is the former principal trumpet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a
position he held for many years. Tom is also one of the finest trumpet
soloists and musicians I have ever encountered and is internationally
respected. He writes for various publications - the Brass Bulletin among them
- and lectures and teaches at symposiums and conferences worldwide. He
writes:

Hi Marv-

I am sitting
here trying to keep busy before cataract surgery, and I thought about writing
a personal note to you about your lovely piece on Stan Kenton. I knew Stan as
something between an acquaintance and a friend. I met him in1965, which was
my first year in the L.A. Philharmonic as 3rd and assistant first trumpet (to
Bob DiVall). Stan was dating, and eventually
married, my friend and next-door neighbor in the Hollywood Hills, Jo Ann
Hill. I socialized with the two of them on a few occasions, both at Jo Ann's
and later, after their marriage, at his Palos Verde home.

What an
enigmatic character - at the forefront of what he called "modern
American music," but he hated modern art and architecture and had
Victorian furniture in his home, or his backing George Wallace for President
while endorsing, after many years of opposite-type thinking, the growing
civil rights movement. Of course, his generation experienced change probably
as no other Americans had previously; so, he was probably not that much of an
anomaly relative to his age group. And there were, as you know, those among
his colleagues who thought he was merely a mini-talented front man whose only
real contribution was discovering and nurturing talented young musicians.

My favorite
Stan stories include his birthday party (remember he had two birthdays and
never was certain which one was the real one) in 1966 where he had some
alcohol in his veins and told Dalton Smith that I played in the Philharmonic
and made more money than he paid Dalton, and yet I never played above the staff!
(Of course, Stan's idea of above-the-staff began after a couple of ledger
lines)

Another one
is when I took him and Jo Ann to see the movie, "A Man and a Woman"
at a theater in Westwood. He had a little 65 Porsche C that
would only hold two persons, so I drove us there in my car. At the theater,
he insisted upon sitting in the front row. His movie viewing preference was
like the band - in your face and larger than life.
We started seated in the middle, but he couldn't stand it; so, he leapfrogged
over row after row to get to the front seats while Jo Ann and I exited the
row and walked down the aisle to them. I'll never forget the sight of what,
in those days, was considered to be a tall man skipping over the seats to get
to the front.

The third story
was when he told me of the problems his arrangers/copyists had with the
transpositions of the original materials for he Wagner album. I told him
those things were simple to do (i.e. They had originally misread Es as the key of E
rather than Eb and didn't understand things like
German bass clarinet notation/transpositions - the clef and the key vs. the
sounding pitch - apparently caused some real problems) He challenged me to
transpose at sight some music for him, which I did (in the staff). He then had
that disgusted look of his and told me if he had met Jo a few years earlier
he could have saved a ton of time and money hiring me to do the
transpositions. (Thank God he didn't - could you imagine a more
daunting/boring task?)

I asked him
some trumpet questions once, and I still remember the scene: We were at Jo's
house, and he was sprawled across the carpet in the living room. He told me
Buddy Childers was the best lead player he ever had and elucidated the
reasons why he thought that. And, he also mentioned the usual suspects like
Count and Maynard. When I asked him about the then young generation (which is
the reason I am writing you), he was not as complimentary except he did
mention you. I remember it as if it were yesterday because it was the first time
I had ever heard your name: he said, almost verbatim if memory serves, there
is this young guy, Marvin Stamm, and if he can
manage to keep his head on straight he could develop into one of the most
(positively verbatim here) "exciting players ever." (apologies if I
told you that one previously) That's your equivalent of Zubin's
"when I found Stevens, he knew nothing!"

The last time
I saw Stan was at a restaurant in Brentwood. (ca. Early 70s?). The Creative
World project was in its embryonic stage at that time, and he had purchased a
house on Beverly Glen in Westwood. Your piece reminded me of a time in my
life I really enjoyed, and it was sensitively written without being corny.
Bravo!

It's great to
see you out there doing so much, so well. The Bill Mays "NewYork" CD is
a favorite of mine. He is one of my favorite musicians.

All the best,Tom

In Response to: Jazz Cruise
2004

Jack and Gloria Schaffer are
friends of mine from Memphis, Tennessee. Gloria and I were part of a rather
large and homogeneous group of teenagers who hung out together during our
high school years. Jack and Gloria were on the Jazz Cruise about which I
wrote in the current issue of Cadenzas. They write:

Hi Marvin,

We read your
Cadenza article on the Jazz Cruise, 2004. It was right on. As fans of Jazz
music, Gloria and I were part of the 1,300 true Jazz music loving people on
the ship.This was our second year to go on this
particular cruise and we booked for 2005 before the ship got back into port,
along with a 1000 other fans.

What more
could one ask for than to be part of this week long gig in the Caribbean,
listening to so many great and diverse Jazz musicians, in Jazz club venues
all over the ship. One of the best things about this setting is that
everybody was there to focus one thing and that was listening to music and
educating themselves about musicians that they had not had the opportunity to
hear before. This was truly a willing "captured audience", and I
can say that when you and your peers were on stage, you had our undivided
attention and respect.

I had the
opportunity of talking to the folks at WUMR-Jazz radio here in Memphis and
help spread the word about many musicians that our Jazz listeners don't get
to hear. They have gotten that message and have been playing many of their
CD's.

It was
especially nice to spend time with a fellow Memphian, listening to your music
and taking time out to talk about friends and family. We look forward to
seeing you here in Memphis in February during Jazz Week at the University of
Memphis.

Best regards,

Jack &
Gloria Schaffer

In Response To: What We are Doing and Why (Edition XIV)

John Carson is the son of a friend
of mine, a gentleman who has been the primary sponsor of the Arts for a
number of years, trying to give something very special to his community. John
has been involved with his band program for about six years, playing
percussion throughout that time. He has also been involved with the school
choir program for seven years and has been playing the piano for around
twelve years. He writes:

Mr. Stamm,

My name is
John Carson and I am from Cushing, Oklahoma. I quite agree with the view points
of the other responses that deal with the fact that all many directors do is
work their students to the bone on the same piece for many weeks to prepare
for a contest. I have to say that in the four years that I have been in the
HS band it has been pretty much of the same old routine every year, we spend
the first three quarters of the semester working on one marching show, then wee work on a few pieces for a Christmas concert and then
three quarters of the next semester is spent getting ready for another round
of monotonous contests and then we spend the rest of the year prepping one or
two other pieces on top of our already learned contest pieces for a spring
concert. I have found that there is little room for musical growth in the
classroom, many students get bored with the music after the first two weeks
and then they just shut down and coast for the other six to nine weeks that
we have left until a performance. I have heard the
same speech from the director every year how our level of playing is a grade
3 and that we just can't do a higher grade piece because it would be to hard for us and he doesn't
want us to get burned out on aharder piece. I
have noticed from my position in the back of the room (I play percussion)
that usually the students are actually more excited and in tune when we are
playing and sight reading the higher grade pieces than when we read the lower
grade pieces that "fit our playing level better." I really think
that this is a load of junk because he has never really tried to even find
our limits; he just does what suits him best and that's picking a piece that
will please the judges.

One piece
that I have been trying to convince my director to play for a concert is the
"March from 1941" by John Williams. Recently I approached him and
asked him if he was going to pull it out and let us readit; he said,
"If you can show me a band that can play it, I'll pull it out." I
had to keep my mouth shut pretty hard after he said that because this year we
have a band mostly composed of underclassmen but they are all very goodat playing and
they really have wanted a challenge. I'm appalled by the lack of faith and
inspiration that my director has shown toward the band program, he is too
comfortable with the same old routine instead of actually trying to help us
strive for musical excellence.

Another item
I have noticed is many students that are musically talented aren't in the
band program or they have dropped out. I have talked to
many of them and when asked why they got out or just didn't try to get in,
their usual response was, "It's not really fun, it's boring."
I have also noticed the same attitude coming from some of my fellow students,
they are very talented, but their talents aren't being used to the fullest extent
because there just isn't any room to grow in the program.

The only
reason I have stayed with the program for this long is I love music and one
day I hope to teach vocalmusic after I go
to college. I just hope more directors would spend more time inspiring their
students to higher levels of musical excellence instead of trying to win
another medal for the office wall.

Patrice Sollenberger is in her twenty-sixth year of teaching
choral music at a local high school in the Shawnee Mission School district,
near Kansas City, KS. There are 5 high schools in her district. Patrice
is married to trumpeter Jay Sollenberger, formerly
of the Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, and Buddy Rich Orchestras. He was also a member
of Chase, the group led by Bill Chase. Jay has been freelancing in Kansas
City since 1979 and has for 20 years been a member of the Univ. of
Missouri/KC Faculty Brass Quintet. He is first call lead trumpet for any
Broadway theatre company performing in Kansas City and remains active on the
K. C. Jazz scene. She writes:

Thank you,
Marvin. Jay did not know of James Williams
death. He worked with James in Memphis back in the 70's so feels a
tremendous loss to learn of his passing. Jay spoke of the jam sessions
at James home where his mother prepared delicious food
for the guys and made them feel so welcome ... especially those players like
Jay who were so far away from home. Jay spoke of his mothers
famous cherry cobbler that was apparently in a famous Jazz musicians cook
book. Very cool. Good memories.

Jay got to
see James here in KC about two years ago when he came through with his
group. They performed at the Folly Theatre, and Jay was able to get to
his gig and go back stage to have some time with him. They had a
wonderful visit, and Jay was just reminiscing about their final time
together. It's hard to imagine that James is gone. He was our
age. It's overwhelming to think of our peers leaving us.

Thank you
again for your efforts to keep us all informed ... AND, I love your articles
... in fact I often copy them and share them with my students. They are
so well written and valid for all areas of our profession.

In Response to Ingredients for a Successful Career in Music

Marilyn
Harris is a singer, songwriter, pianist and arranger whose talents have
graced not only her own recordings, but variety of other artists' work
including Jim Brickman, Bette Midler, Lola Falana,
Donna McKechnie, as well as jazz vocalists Anne
Marie Moss, Jackie Paris, Judi Silvano and Diane Hubka. After studying composition with Hale Smith at the
Univ. of Connecticut and film scoring with Ray Wright and Manny Albam at the Eastman School of Music, Marilyn worked
extensively with jazz arranger Gil Evans and studied piano with Richard Tee
and Rodgers Grant. She has produced music for commercials (Amoco, McDonald's,
Kraft, Kellogg's, United Airlines, etc.) and ABC-TV's "General
Hospital." Marilyn also provided original music scores for such diverse
projects as the Hallmark Hall of Fame, BBCs
radio drama "Milford-Haven, USA" (UK) and "Yogurt
Variations" for the New Britain Symphony Orchestra. Marilyn has released
a wonderful new recording entitled, Future Street,
and you can learn more about her by visiting her web site,
www.marilynharris.com. She writes:

Marvin!

In addition
to all the terrific points you mentioned in your INGREDIENTS FOR A SUCCESSFUL
CAREER IN MUSIC, you might add "continued studies" - I've found
that music is something I KEEP learning over the years and I've profited
immeasurably from taking private lessons with other pianists and songwriters,
well past my "school days"! Not to mention workshops,
seminars and conferences - as well as keeping me informed about NEW music and
performers, these events have expanded my grasp of music and continued to add
new colleagues to my address book!

Thanks for
the always lively dialogue on your website!

Dennis
Ferry began his musical education in the U.S. with his father, a big-band
trumpeter. He graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University and, in 1977, was
named principal trumpet of the Orchestre de la
Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland, a position
that he continues to hold. He previously, occupied the same position in the
orchestras of Jerusalem, Dόsseldorf, and Rotterdam. Dennis was also principal
trumpet of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder for thirteen years, from
1983-1996, . A specialist in baroque music, he plays
natural trumpet with such major baroque ensembles as Les
Arts Florissants,La Chapelle Royale,
and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.
He writes:

Hi Marvin,

Always nice
to read Cadenzas. Hope all is going well for you. I especially enjoyed
Ingredients for a Successful Career in Music.
A lot of that stuff, I had to learn the hard way, some of it I probably
haven't learned yet! I wish I had read something like that when I was your
typical "angry young man".

Keep up the
good work and keep playing GREAT as you have always done.

In Response To Bootlegs (Edition XIV)

Morris Repass is an old friend from my days at the University of
North Texas. He was the bass trombonist with the Dallas Symphony and
first-call for all the recording work in that city. Morris has lived for many
years in Los Angeles where he is one of the most sought-after bass
trombonists on the L. A. scene. He writes:

Hi Marv,

I do enjoy
your Cadenzas articles and your web site. You and I go back many
years!!

Just a few
words to add to the wonderful article about bootleg CDs. Many musicians I
meet hear a CD I have and say, "would you burn a copy of that for
me?" This is asking me to bootleg one copy of that CD for him. It may
even be a new CD of a friend of ours who has put up his own money for the
recording. I tell them, "No, but I will tell you where you can buy
one!" They don't even realize they are asking me to take money right out
of the pockets of musicians! This goes on with musicians all over the world.
(I travel a lot.) This amounts to thousands of CDs. If we musicians don't
support each other's product, how can we expect support from the public?

Steve Huffsteter, a terrific jazz trumpeter/composer, has a new
DVD of his big band with which I play. It is on: http://www.aixrecords.com/.
Please don't bootleg it, just buy it online. Keep up the good work on Cadenzas.
Musicians around the world are communicating with each other through it.

In Response To What We are Doing and Why (Edition XIV)

Doug
Carson is a friend who lives in the small town of Cushing, OK. He is quite
famous in certain fields of modern technology - really wuite
a genius! Doug is also one of the most community-minded people I have met and
devotes a great deal of his time and energy toward making Music and the Arts
available to the people in Cushing and the state of Oklahoma. He is also
extremely active, working in education. He writes:

Marvin,

I have been
trying for the past several years to internally understand and then verbalize
why I have felt our HS band program had stalled in concert quality, energy
and participation both in terms of students and the community. I fully
agree with the Michael Schofields analysis and
actions, as well as the responses from your readers.

I have also
observed the same narrowing of new musical literature learned by our band
students as well as the look of drudgery and lack of enthusiasm on their
faces and in their performances at concerts, not just their half time
shows. What has also disturbed me is that a significant portion of the
music included in the public "concerts" is announced from the
podium as contest pieces for this and that contest. The students are in
a constant state of preparation for one contest after another, with no time
to simply enjoy playing for the sake of making music. I suspect this is why
our son John, who is in the band, spends a good deal of his spare time not
working on his band pieces, but instead sits for hours at the piano and plays
for the sheer enjoyment of it.

With the
constant focus on nine months of non-stop competitions, I fear these kids are
not learning the joy of music; they are being used to create scores and
awards that will look good on the directors or school systems
bio. This is a tragic misuse of these students talents and gifts as
well as music education and appreciation.

Thanks again
for all you do in support of quality musical experiences!

Scott Robinson
is one of today's most wide-ranging instrumentalists; there may not be an
instrument he doesnt play! Stylistically,
he is also one of the most versatile of musicians, having played tenor sax
with Buck Clayton's band, trumpet with Lionel Hampton's quintet, alto
clarinet with PaquitoD'Rivera's
clarinet quartet, and bass sax with the New York City Opera. He has been
heard with a cross-section of jazz's greats representing nearly every
imaginable style of the music, from Ruby Braff to
Anthony Braxton. Scott has been heard on
numerous films, radio and television shows, and his discography includes over
135 recordings. His four releases as a leader have garnered five-star reviews
from Leonard Feather, Down Beat Magazine and other sources worldwide. The
newest, Melody From the Sky (featuring the seldom-heard C-Melody saxophone),
was recently the subject of a Wall Street Journal article by Nat Hentoff. A respected performer in all areas of jazz, from
traditional to avant-garde, Scott Robinson has arrived at his own unique
musical voice. He writes:

Marvin,

Well... I
really loved being in marching band. In fact I think of it as a great
untapped art form with lots of possibilities that have never been explored.
I'd love to create a piece for that medium.

But I don't
think we ever competed when I was in school. We had a very good wind
ensemble, which did compete some, and a pretty pathetic jazz band of sorts.
And I loved those, too. Marching band was optional, at least for the wind
ensemble players, and met after school. We certainly put in more than 2 1/2
hours a week, but we also learned a new show for each home game.

My
stepson recently graduated from the same school (in Va.), and now it's a big
marching program that commissions music and competes -- but they only do
one show, and one piece of music, for the whole season. That just doesn't
seem right to me. [Emphasis added]

We were
always learning new shows, and it was a lot of fun. I remember once that a
home game fell on Halloween, and we wore all kinds of crazy outfits. I was
marching out there with an old gutted TV set over my head, rabbit ears on
top, and the glass removed so I could play the sax. My Dad rigged up a couple
of straps to make it stay. And my school had an old bass sax, so I used to take
that out. We had fun! But of course not everyone was as into it as I was, and
not everybody had to do it. And certainly the other bands met all year. Plus
we did pit bands for shows. So there were plenty of musical experiences to be
had, some at a pretty high level and others not so serious.

I would hope
that today's kids could get a whole variety of experiences like that too, and
have a lot of fun with it. I have to say, though, that for me that definitely
included marching band!

Dr. Jeff
Boehm will begin his new position as Associate
Professor of Music at Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio this fall.
He will conduct the Concert Band, brass chamber ensembles,
teach trumpet and instrumental music education courses. Prior to
teaching at Bluffton, Dr. Boehm taught at Otterbein College (Ohio), serving
as Director of the Cardinal Marching Band, the Big Band,
Conductor of the Concert Band, Coordinator of Chamber Activities,
Coordinator of Music Technology, and teaching instrumental music education courses.
He also taught in a similar cpacity at William Penn
College (Iowa). Dr. Boehm spent ten years teaching in the public and private
school sector in West Virginia, Wisconsin and Iowa. His duties have
encompassed all facets of band, choir, general music and guitar
classes. Dr. Boehm is active in the Ohio Music Education Association,
having served as Government Relations Chair and Mentorship Chair. He is also
a member of the Conductor's Guild, and the International Association of Jazz
Educator's. His Ph.D. and M.M. (Trumpet) are from the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, and he holds a B.M.E. from Otterbein College. He
writes:

Regarding the
Marching Band issue:

A) I applaud
the motives and fundamental changes made by Michael and his program. I
quite agree that the emphasis on the trophy and\or rating has taken WAY too
much precedence and replaced much of the education in music education.

B) However, I
would like to point out that some of the finest marching programs in the
United States also have fine concert band programs. Most of the top
Band Of America bands rehearse concert organizations during school beginning
in the fall and do the marching band-as-competition thing after school.
In programs where this is an option, many of them still have HUGE marching
bands. The students love the sport.

C) I have no
problem with the decision to only do football games. I DO however have
a HUGE problem with the fact that they want to leave after half-time.
The marching band does not exist only to perform at half-time. This is
a ridiculous notion that has been popular among band directors since the
70's, at least. The marching band is, or should be, and integral part
of the atmosphere of a ball game. At my first game as a high school
band director, the referees threatened to penalize the team if we didn't quit
playing so loud. The coach sent a message, "We'll take the
penalty, keep it up". The band went from laughing-stock to town
heroes over night.

We need to
realize the many roles that music plays in the global community. We
tend to scoff when we do "music to be ignored by" gigs and feel
unappreciated as artists. The fact is we are appreciated, just not
always on the level on which we would like to be appreciated. There is
an audience development book called, "Waiting in the Wings" that
talks about reaching the audience at their point-of-entry. This is not
a new conept to educators when teaching
skills. However, we as music educators seem to throw that concept out
the window when trying to reach students and audiences with the finer points
of our art. I guess you could say that I've learned to subscribe to the
"just a spoon full of sugar" concept, meaning that you have to give
audiences what they want in order for you to be able to take them to a new
level. They've got to get in the door. High school marching bands
are a part of the way in which we can reach our communities and get the $
support that we need to teach the aesthetics we so hunger to impart.
Not going to competitions isn't going to anger the football parents, but not
supporting the team and portraying an image of only being there for ourselves
(by leaving early) will not foster good community relations. Like it or
not, that is a part of what we do. We ARE an integral part of the
community and we should embrace that role as we try to embrace those we wish
to educate.

Don Roeder
is a retired thoracic surgeon living in Carlisle, PA. He is a long time
trumpet player, having the good fortune to have been involved with many
musical ventures over the years. Currently, Don teaches trumpet, performs
cornet solos with the Carlisle Town Band, plays "Taps" at military
funerals with the Cumberland County Honor Guard [an all
volunteer organization], plays at various churches in the Carlisle
area, and continues to perform with the Dickinson College Orchestra and
Symphonic Band. He writes:

Thank you for
the June edition of Cadenzas. I finally have found the right moment to
sit down and really read what you have had to say. The letter from
Michael Schofield addresses one of the major problems I have noted in high
school music programs. As a neophyte teacher of trumpet, I find myself
frustrated by what kids are taught and by what they are NOT taught in school
music programs these days.

Your response
is, as always, insightful, well worded, and extremely thought
provoking. I plan to forward it to several of my friends with whom I
have discussed this very subject on several occasions. I don't know if
all of this will bring about necessary changes, but at least it is a
start. It truly is time for a change in the direction of school music
programs and to get the kids back to learning the joy of music rather than
the drudgery -- and allow them to understand that music is an unsearchable
art that is able to lift the soul and buoy the spirit.

Michael
Smith was the first student to graduate under the Professorship of Jimmy
Simmons at Lamar University, Beaumont, TX in 1972. He has taught music at the
Junior High/Middle School level and in several high school programs. He also
served as Director of Music in two Texas school districts before serving five
years as Assistant Principal at Lumberton High School, Lumberton, TX. He also
served four years at Lumberton Primary School as Principal before returning
to Lumberton High School this year as Principal. Mr. Smith is a saxophonist
and continues playing professionally. His experience includes symphony work,
touring shows, small club, work as well as some large jazz band and Rhythm
and Blues bands. He writes:

Your words are
so appropriate for not only the university world, but are becoming a real
concern for us in the public education world. State and national assessment as well as the associated accountability standards
have alarmingly reduced the awareness of Fine Arts being an essential.
It appears that we must somehow find a way for "round" kids to fit
into "square" holes in our worlds of assessment and generalized
standards. Certainly standards and accountability are valuable but only so if
it is relevant to that audience to which it is addressed. I have observed an
ever-increasing number of students that are progressing, on their own, in a multi facetted technological world, who have great
difficulty communicating with teachers. These kids need more exposure to the
arts, not less. Experiencing the beauty and calmness of the inner being that
the arts bring truly does calm the savage beast. It is true our scores will
continue to increase as we strive to meet another "someones"
arts-devoid standard. Pick up the newspaper, listen or watch the news, listen
to the state of their music, their art. Is it better? Are we meeting their
needs or are we fulfilling our need to feel we are making a difference? Are
we producing a generation of learners that will continue to address life from
a perspective that is not inclusive of man, the whole of man? From my
perspective, the journey, self-realization of life through music has afforded
me the ability to know who I am, what my purpose in life is and an outlook
that in the end all is well. Jimmy, I also owe much of that
life changing experience to you and the example you have provided so many.
Never give up, never give up. 2+2=4. Art = Life.

Joe Koplin is a lawyer and Jazz trumpeter living and working
in Seattle, WA. We have been friends for a number of years; I have even
stayed in his home several times. Joe and I have had many discussions about
our world today, the world we grew up in and how each relates to the other.
We also have spent many hours talking about music and education. He writes:

Reading the
two pieces in Cadenzas by Sam Hazo and Jimmy
Simmons led me to reflect on my own musical background and training. It
seems to me that the message of Drs. Hazo and
Simmons is somewhat abstract and philosophical, i.e., that music education is
valuable because it is "civilizing" and "uplifting", and
of course that is true, but I have also found that my musical education has
paid some very concrete dividends outside the field of music per se. I
never really flirted with the idea of a career in music, and so this is
written from the perspective of a pure amateur.

Growing up in
the 1960's in the Philadelphia area, not only did I have the benefit of a
well-rounded musical education, but also I was fortunate to be able to study
with a fine private trumpet teacher, Ed McCoy, whom you met at the Colin NY
Brass Conference back in the mid 90s. After
finishing college in the early 70's, I chose to continue on to law school and
to pursue a career as an attorney. Over the years, my practice has
evolved into a specialty representing injured and disabled persons. I
firmly believe that my musical training has made me a more articulate,
effective, and compassionate advocate for my clients. But what does
music have to do with the practice of law?

The law,
especially litigation, is highly competitive and demanding. Today I
have the luxury of gigging regular with my own jazz quintet in Seattle.
The immense pleasure of expressing myself musically
is only one benefit of my musical training; the artistic and emotional outlet
is an antidote to the pressures of my work as an attorney, and it keeps me
sane and focused.

Twenty years
ago while living in Japan, I was invited to play in an amateur big band in
Tokyo, and despite my minimal linguistic ability, the fact that we all spoke
the same musical language opened many social and cultural doors, which would
otherwise have been closed to me. These days when I go on vacation, I
always take my horn to keep my chops up, and I keep my eyes and ears open for
a good jam session to drop in on. My "alter-ego" as a jazz
player has exposed me to a wealth of fascinating and talented people whom I
never would have met otherwise. My passion for music is a great
icebreaker, which "humanizes" me in the eyes of my professional
colleagues and many of my clients, and it is always a pleasure to perform at
Bar-related events, conferences, etc.

While
difficult to put into words, the ability to improvise carries over in the
ability to conduct oneself in the courtroom, whether speaking to a judge or
jury, or conducting a direct or cross examination of a witness. In
fact, gifted trial attorneys who may not be musically inclined nevertheless
describe the "zen" of a well-reasoned
argument or the adrenaline rush of an inspired cross-examination in terms
very similar to a jazz musician who finds himself
improvising "in the zone". Just as a musician must shed
continually in order to achieve total mastery of his instrument and fluency
in the various scales, modes, intervals and "jazz vocabulary" in
order to paint a coherent sound picture, the well-prepared attorney has
steeped himself in and has so mastered the facts and intricacies of his case
that he is prepared to "improvise" in response to unexpected
testimony, arguments of opposing counsel, or questions from the Judge.
Just as in music, the law is one percent inspiration and ninety
nine percent perspiration, and without logging the hours you just
can't solo in the courtroom.

While I
certainly don't ever expect to make my living as a teacher or performer of
music, my musical training and experience has unquestionably made my life far
richer and more rewarding, personally and professionally.

Phil Woods Interview and Response

Phil Woods
need no introduction. He is considered by most to be the greatest living alto
saxophonist. He is passionate in his music as well as passionate about life.
This passion includes his feelings about his mentors, colleagues and
teachers. Phil is a fine teacher himself, the voice of experience, and passes
this on to others. What follows is a discourse resulting from Downbeat
Magazines refusal to include an interview with Phil
because they felt his highlighting his teacher mentioned herein instead of
someone more visible to the Jazz audience didnt
fit their criteria for the article. I have included Phils
initial email to me, followed by the interview, and Phils
note to the interviewer, Ted Panken, holding him
blameless for the refusal to include their interview. The speeches of Sam Hazo and Jimmy Simmons prompted Phils
writing me about this situation as he knows that Cadenzas is directed to
musicians. Jazz fans, AND teachers.

Phils
Letter:

Dear Marv,
old buddy,

I love your
E-letter! You may be interested in this. Downbeat is running a piece on
influences on saxophone players (it may have other instrumentalists-I am not
sure). When they called me for interview a few weeks ago I told them that my
first teacher, Mr. Harvey Larose, was of profound influence on everything I
have accomplished. Under separate cover I am sending you an essay I wrote for
Sax Journal about this outstanding teacher and friend.

Ted Panken called yesterday and told me that the editor would
not run my interview because nobody ever heard of Mr. Larose. They want me to
do another one using a famous sax man, like Rudy Wiedoff
or Ozzie Nelson. I told them to stick their tacky mag where the sun don't shine. How dare they!!
The unsung heroes of our music are the local teachers who help us discover
ourselves through their toil. I would like the IAJE to know about this
cavalier approach to jazz education and let Deadbeat know how they feel.
Could you pass this on to the members at large and tell them of this woeful
neglect by a magazine that profits from the work of teachers like Mr. Harvey
Larose? He turned me on to Benny Carter, Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker,
plus taught me the American songbook and gave me advanced improvisation
lessons when I was 13 years old! I am really upset about this! Please help
spread the news to other jazz educators of this travesty. Thank you.Phil Woods

The
Interview:

(Done
3/12/04)

WOODS:
You want one influence. My first teacher, Harvey Larose. Harvey turned
me on The first solos he gave me were Benny Carter
transcriptions. He gave me a Duke Ellington piece called Mood
To Be Wooed one time, and hed
play piano I mean, I was getting jazz improv lessons at age 12-13 that have never been equalled. Ive gone on to many
educational situations, but that was the best. And wouldnt
you know it: Ellington came to town that week, and Johnny Hodges
stepped forward and he played Mood To Be Wooed.
I said, Ah, thats how it goes.
My teacher was a very wise man, because when I first went to him I was just
faking it. I received a horn in a will, and I had no interest in playing
it. I went to the first lesson, came home, put the horn in the closet,
went back for the second lesson, and I could play it! And instead of
yelling at me, How dare you, youre
using your ear to play music (which is only our
best friend, of course), Harvey nurtured my retentive ability and my good
ear, and by age 14, I was committed to becoming a player of some kind.

TP: What was
your hometown?

WOODS:
Springfield, Massachusetts? When I inherited the horn, I stuck it in the
closet and went about my business of melting lead
Originally, I was going to melt the saxophone and make toy soldiers out of
it. But I was discouraged from that undertaking. My Mom said, You
should at least take a lesson; your uncle went to a great deal of trouble to
leave you the horn. Even at age, I realized that dying
could be construed as a great deal of trouble. Thats
why Im going to save it for last. So I went
to the Yellow Pages, and I looked up the drum shop, saxophone
lessons, called the teacher, and lo and behold, I got
Mr. Larose, and my life changed at that moment. I remember after
arranging the appointment (it was always present in my head what a brilliant
natural I was), I said, Should I bring the
saxophone? I could hear Harvey say, Oh,
what have I got here?It would be a good
idea to bring the saxophone to your first saxophone lesson.
And the word dummy was implied.

TP: You
were 12. That would have been 44.

WOODS:
Im 72 now, so it was sixty years ago. I
was born Nov. 2, 1931. So that would have been during the war years.
Let me give you a little background on Harvey. He taught guitar,
violin, saxophone, clarinet, played piano, played
all of those instruments, arranged and composed for big bands. He was
not a jazz improviser per se, but he was a helluva
musician. He not only taught all those instruments; he repaired all of those
instruments. And he wasnt that much older than
I, but he had a medical deferment. Oh God, he was about 20-21 when I
was 12. He had about ten years on me. Once I was smitten, and it didnt
take long under his remarkable tutelage I was getting four
pop songs a week. This was Gershwin, Porter, Arlen, Ellington.
In those years, the American Songbook was blossoming. He turned me into
a walking Real Book. Then he encouraged me to decorate and improvise a
little bit, and I didnt need too much prodding in that
direction. And I was away and running. He was giving me the
chords and the scales. The Benny Carter transcriptions was
the first jazz I ever really read and analyzed, then the Ellington stuff and
seeing Hodges. Then hearing Charlie Parker, of course, completed my
study with the triumvirate. But without Harvey, it wouldnt
have happened.

TP: So
unlike a lot of people born when you were, you didnt
come to Bird before having heard and studied Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges.

WOODS:
No. I was aware of those two cats before I heard
I mean, it all happened within a very brief I just jumped into
the pool and got wet immediately. But Benny Carter was first.

TP: Do you
remember which solos?

WOODS:
I really dont. Ive looked and looked
at the used music shops, and Ive never come across
it. I have no idea what it was.

TP: Was he
also having you listen to records?

WOODS: I
was already into that. I grew up with Hal Serra, who was a piano player
with Julie London, and is still a Broadway composer. He lived up the
street from me and had a few years on me. We used to go hear all the bands.
He played piano. He was into Teddy Wilson and Benny Goodman. Sal Salvador,
the guitar player from Kentons band, was
there. Joe Morello, the drummer from Brubeck,
was in town. Chuck Andrews, who played bass with Woody Herman when Nat Pierce
was on the band. We all had a kid band together. We all played
bebop together. We had jam sessions all the time. Thats
all we did. People say, Did you practice?
I said, I practiced a fair share, but I remember
playing a lot. We used to jam all the time either up
at Sal Salvadors pad Sal was the first guy
to move to New York, and Hal and I moved to New York shortly thereafter, and
we all lived on 93rd Street and Riverside Drive.

TP: But
Harvey Larose is the one who put it all together.

WOODS:
Yeah, thats right.

TP: I was
pretty sure youd talk about Bird, or maybe Benny
Carter.

WOODS:
No, if you want the one guy, Harvey was the guy. He has twin daughters
and I stay in touch with the twin daughters. They both play the saxophone.

TP: So he
would have been born in 22 or 23.

WOODS:
Something like that. He died 9 years ago. He was very proud. He
had my posters and records all over. He was my severest critic right up
to the end. It was a good excuse to go home, because I dont
have much family up there. Now that hes gone, I never get up
to Springfield any more. But I would always check out the
maestro. He was a good lead alto man. He wasnt
a jazzer. He was just a great musician, one
of those unsung heroes you find in towns all over America,
that maybe are not going to set the world on fire. But man, youve
got to give the educators the praise they deserve, man. A good teacher
is worth his weight in gold, and Harvey was a well-rounded teacher. He
did it all.

TP: What
would you say was his greatest impact on you, if you had to distil it?

WOODS:
Well, just being aware of everybodys fragility. I could
always get a good sound. And I always remember him saying, Feel
the pearl, baby; feel the pearl. I remember when
I saw Charlie Parker, I couldnt
see his fingers move. And I like to think that Harvey taught me the
same thing. Stay close. I see young players, and theyre
waving like theyre waving goodbye to their wives or something,
and their fingers are all over the keyboard. I stay very, very
close. I can hear Harvey saying, Feel the pearl,
meaning feel the pearl keys  staying close.

TP: I
recently saw a video from a Norman Granz session of
Bird with Hawk. Hes hardly moving his

WOODS:
Well, hes hardly playing either. But I saw Bird
a million times, and you couldnt see his fingers
move, man. It was fuckin
amazing. Professor Buster Smith, evidently his teacher must have said, Feel
the pearl too.

TP: I think
he had a legitimate clarinet and alto player named Tommy Douglas teach him in
high school.

TP: Sounds
like thats the way saxophones and reeds were taught
back then.

WOODS:
I think it was.

Phils
note regarding Ted Panken:

Hi everybody,

Ted is a good
guy and did a great interview and in no way took part in the popularity
contest. He is quite aware of the good work that teachers do to make
our music so important worldwide. And he was a groove to talk with so don't
blame the messenger!

Phil

[*Editors
note - Since all this has was brought to light, the ensuing uproar in the
musical community has caused DownBeat Magazine to
rescind its decision. It will now publish Phils
interview.]

In Response to the Phil Woods
Interview

Don
Shelton is a great musician, a vocalist and reedman. Many of you may remember
him as being a member of the wonderful, award-winning vocal group, the Hi-Lo's! Don has performed with such legendary vocalists as
Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli, and Mel Torme
and has toured throughout Europe, North America and Japan. He has recorded
more than 20 albums and has performed for radio, television, movies, concerts
and jazz festivals around the world. Don lives in Los Angeles and plays with
most of the top groups there - the Bob Florence Band, Doc Severinsens orchestra and others.
He writes:

Hi Marv,

Just a
terrific one this month. My goodness - I relate so much to the
"mentor" thing, i.e. our band directors and private teachers et al.
I only wish that I could have had an early teacher who knew chords and their
function and all that. But I did have my Dad who played clarinet duets with
me for several years and his playing the big bands etc.; and most
importantly, getting me in to hear the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman,
and others when they came through Hobbs, New Mexico on the way to the Hollywood
Palladium. It was most exciting for me for sure.

The guys in
the bands were so great, turning their stands so I could see the manuscript
going by. Of course, I was not supposed to be there due to alcohol being
served, but my Dad stood up to them and insisted I would be monitored and
busy with the music. That served me until I reached the U.S. Navy School of
Music; then I was off and running with older cats who were mainly from the
East coast and experienced players. I learned as fast as I could. What an exhilarating
time for me! Anyway, Im glad DownBeat came
around; it shouldn't have come to that of course. Bravo to you for exposing
it all to the rest of us.

Bill
Cherry is a writer, a native Galveston, TX. He is a former musician and now a
weekly columnist for the Galveston County Daily News. He is also the author
of the book, Galveston Memories,
which details some of the rich tapestry of the cultural life in this unique
place during the Twentieth Century. He writes:

I would
really like to meet Phil Woods. He may be the greatest alto man alive
today, but what's more important than that by leagues and leagues is his
respect for the legacy his teacher, Mr. Larose put inside his gut. And Phil
understands and appreciates that to such a degree that he is rabid about it.

I think stuff
like that is important telling and reading. I don't know what's
happened to Down Beat, but they must not get it any more. Would be
interesting if Leonard Feather were here and were given the assignment to
critique that magazine's editorial philosophy as it is today. And a
story about Ozzie Nelson? Good grief!

Peter Knudsvig was born and raised in Williston, ND and has
performed on three continents, North America, Africa and Europe. He is
presently co-principal trumpet of the Hof Symphony Orchestra located in
Northern Bavaria, Germany. In addition to his orchestral duties, he is also
first trumpet and chief arranger for Rekkenze
Brass, one of Europe's leading brass quintets. He lives together with his
wife, Debbie and daughter, Kaitlyn in Hof, where he
enjoys such local German pastimes as hiking, skiing and beer...... but not
necessarily in that order. He writes:

Marvin,

Got your
latest cadenzas news letter and read the Phil Woods
thing.

Wow! Editors
are supposed to PROTECT the truth, not kill it. But even beyond that, I see a
couple of village idiots here who, if they were smart would capitalize on the
truth which I firmly believe, if they had an ounce of imagination, make the
story far richer and more interesting because it starts nowhere and ends up
on top.

I do have an
observation about the article I wanted to pass on to Phil if you would,
please.

In the
article Phil says about Mr. Larose:

"He was
just a great musician, one of those unsung heroes you find in towns all over America, that maybe are not going to set the world on
fire".

I would argue
this point with Phil. Actually, Larose did set the
world on fire through the person of Phil Woods who did most of the burning!

In Response
to Orchestra Experiences

Bob Freedman - in his words, is an arranger who is fortunate enough to have had his
work played by some of the finest musicians in the world and considers that
to be the greatest reward a writer can receive. Those are Bobs
words in reality, he is one of the
finest arrangers and composers I have known over my career as well as being a
person of complete musical integrity. Among those with which he has worked as
musical director and arranger are Lena Horne, Harry Belfonte
and many others. Many of you will know his recorded work through the Wynton
Marsalis CD, "Hot House Flowers." He writes:

Having swum
in the milieu of the symphonic pops orchestra a few times, as both arranger
and conductor, I read your recent article on the subject with interest.

Like you, I
always try to bring music for them to play which is well written for the instruments
and which will tend to show respect for their dedicated musicianship.
Therefore I am surprised and disappointed when some of the players subtilely seem to express contempt, or at least
disinterest, for/in their parts.

One
appearance I did with an internationally renowned singer entailed four
services - two rehearsals and two performances - with a famous west coast
orchestra. The 'cello section, without any comment from the orchestra's
manager, got smaller with each successive service. At the final performance
it was about half its original size. This was not disastrous, however neither
did it give us anything in the way of encouragement.

On the other
hand, the Ravinia (Illinois) Festival Orchestra, which was essentially a
full-size pickup group, treated our book with the enthusiasm they might have
devoted to an evening of Stravinsky. My baton is not by any means a faultless
beacon, but those young musicians followed it as though I had been leading
them to the Promised Land.

Another
pleasant experience on the same tour was with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.
This was the only venue in which I did not conduct. Erich Kunzel,
the orchestra's illustrious Music Director, applied himself to the job and
asked me to stand next to him during the entire rehearsal process. As it
turned out, my presence was pretty much unnecessary because Mr. Kunzel had gained an immediate grasp of each score and
conveyed his understanding flawlessly to the orchestra..
(The 'cello section remained at full strength throughout.)

Arrangers
have the duty to be continuously aware that the symphonic pops orchestra is
not merely a huge studio band. I think that instrumentalists have a similar
responsibility to assess and perform their parts with total integrity and
pride. The audience and the featured performer deserve our very best.

Richard McMahan is an old and dear
friend who began his teaching career in 1966, earning a Bachelors
degree from Newberry College, a Masters degree from
East Carolina University and a doctorate from the University of South
Carolina. As band director in Lexington, SC, he always tried to bring in top
jazz talent to conduct clinics and concerts with his students. Richard
left teaching in 1979 to open his own music production company and recording
studio. He sold the studio and busibess in 1991 to
enter the financial services business and continues being a teacher,
educating clients with his financial expertise. He writes:

How lucky all
of us are to have had our lives touched by music and people who "make
music". Many of us developed our love for the arts and teaching
because of the influence of people such as you, Clark Terry, Clem DeRosa, Roger Pemberton, Tom Ferguson, Ed Soph and my college band director, Charles
"chief" Pruitt.

During my
early years as a high school band director, I received a recording from Tom
Ferguson featuring you with the Memphis State University jazz band. The
band, your performance and Jack Cortner's
arrangements blew me away.

In the late
1960's during a visit to NYC, I decided to contact you. You spent
almost an hour talking to me about music education and invited me to drop by
the Village Vanguard on Monday night to hear Thad and Mels
band. I found it hard to believe that you would devote so much time
with a high school band director from the middle of South Carolina. I
am forever grateful that you did. My students all benefited from your
influence on me.

Last year I
received an email from a former student that I have not seen since his
graduation in 1972. He thanked both me and you not only for his life long love of music but for the influence on his life
beyond music as well.

Although I
have been out the music business for a number of years, many of my fondest
memories are of the friends and teachers that taught me more than music.

Thank you for
all that you have given.

Mike Metheny is a marvelous trumpet/flugelhorn soloist. A
native of Missouri, he holds both a bachelor and masters
degree in Music Education. Mike was a member of the U.S. Army Field Band in
Washington, D.C., and later a faculty member at Boston's Berklee
College of Music. While in Boston, he led his own quartet, appearing in numerous
club, concert and festival settings across New England and the U.S. In
addition to appearing on numerous jazz recordings as a sideman, Mike has
released eight solo albums and is one of the few trumpeters to regularly
perform on the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument). Today, Mike is a freelance
performer and music journalist in the Kansas City area and the editor of
Kansas City's Jazz Ambassador Magazine (JAM), a position he held for
nine years. Mike and I have shared the stage several times, always a source
of great pleasure to me as we share so many musical values. You may learn
more about Mike and check out his musical contributions at http://www.mikemetheny.com/. He
writes:

Of your many
Cadenzas, this edition I especially enjoyed. Regarding "How Lucky Is
That?" in recent years I've had the opportunity to say to my first
teacher, Keith House (from 40 years ago), "You can't second guess
fate." We were talking on the phone one day about all the different
twists and turns one's career can take... from day one. I was also intrigued
by this segment of your article:

<< And upon hearing a
recording of Clyde McCoys Sugar
Blues from my brothers record collection, I
would choose the trumpet, which would be the life-long source of my
self-expression. >>

As you may
have read in some of Pat's bio material over the years, it was my record
collection brought home from college during summers in the late '60s that
contributed to Pat's initial interest in jazz. In those days I was more
interested in being the next Maurice Andre, but Pat took full advantage of
his older brother's secondary affinity for jazz that included, among many
things, Miles, Clark, and Kenton... with a young Marvin Stamm
on trumpet.

<< How
fortunate that my first band director was an excellent teacher, had an
interest in those of us who seemed to get the message
and would do all he could to encourage that interest. >>

In a recent
JAM magazine I was able to salute my first teacher, Mr. House. He was also a
very important influence for Pat (who played French horn in the high school
band, believe it or not... a great trivia question someday!). If you're
interested, the piece is at:

http://www.jazzkc.org/issues/2002-10/newmusicteacher.html
(scroll to the bottom)

<< And
that my brother, Gordon, possessing a love for Jazz and dance band music
would allow me to listen to and play along with his records from which my
first attempts at improvisation would materialize. Gordon would become my
first great influence in Jazz. All sheer luck, but creating experiences that
would be life-altering. >>

It sounds
like Gordon and I would have something in common: being related to renowned
jazz musicians!

<< It
seems that most of my life has gone that way  how I came to be on
the Kenton Band and later the Herman Band; my decision to go to NYC and my
meeting and becoming close friends with the great trumpeter Ernie Royal my
first day in town; how I subbed on the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis jazz Orchestra
one week after arriving in New York, that leading to a seven year association
with the band. It was my good fortune that this led to a long career in the
studios and my becoming firmly established in NYC. >>

Fortuitous
serendipity at first, no doubt... but, as you will surely agree, superior
talent must also come into play. Had you not been an excellent player, open
doors would have closed rather quickly!

<< So
what is the lesson in all this? Im not sure I know. But
I do know how lucky I am to have had these life experiences,
each unplanned, occurring because I was in the right place at the right time.
>>

Not that it
matters, but I am very much the agnostic. Yet, when certain things seem to
come together in such perfectly orchestrated ways, I do tend to stop in my
tracks and ponder "the imponderable." Is it just plain luck? Or the
result of "a greater plan"? Hard to say... although I do sometimes
lean in the direction of thanking "favorable yet incomprehensible cosmic
forces." But then I'm also compelled to wonder why some people with good
hearts and great potential get hit by the proverbial Mack truck going the
wrong way on the interstate. After all these years, I still have no idea what
it's all about, Alfie...

Some Thoughts
on Our World

Another solid
article, Marvin. These are, indeed, very unusual and unprecedented times.
Here's another two cents: You and I are part of a generation that remembers
all too well the Cold War and the era of Mutually Assured Destruction. The
Russians didn't want to die, we didn't want to die, and so nothing major ever
happened. But now we're dealing with people who think it's COOL
to die. "Paradise" and all that. I've had some spirited debates
with friends who think we should at least be trying to "talk" with
our new adversaries. I respond with: "How do you sit down and reason
with someone who thinks it's a good idea to fly a plane into a
building?!" In the last year or so, I've been thinking a lot about Peggy
Lee, who used to sing, "If that's all there is, my friend, then let's
keep on dancing, and break out the booze, and have a ball." Tonight I
will raise a glass to those insightful words.

John
Daniel has over 20 years experience, teaching
college at Abilene Christian University and Penn State University; he began
teaching at Lawrence Conservatory in Appleton, WI September, 2002. He
has played as a sub on Broadway, with dozens of symphony orchestras, and
appeared as a soloist in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and at numerous
universities. He writes:

I have so
much to say on this subject, I'm not sure how to begin. So let's try being a
bit general and philosophical before we turn to more personal matters.

Of course the
element of chance, odds, or luck is a part of human experience.
However, our perspective on life has a great deal to do with how large a part
of life luck will play, and even more importantly, if we consider our luck to
be good or bad. We all know people who recognize good luck as a
blessing and bad luck as a challenge and opportunity to grow(
a blessing in disguise). We watch sports because we want to see how
people will respond to the element of chance. We all can relate to that
even if we aren't athletic. Live music will always have it's place for the same
reason. There is something heroic and mythological about responding to
the challenges of human existence ( one of which is
'chance') in a public forum. We don't always succeed,
it would be pretty boring if we did! I'm not even sure it would be
"art" if we always were successful, but that's another topic.

The point is, if we are philosophical about the "chance"
elements of life, we can decide to accept our fate and make the most of
it. Also, there is a certain matter of energy flow, which will
certainly have an effect on our luck. For example,
when we are young and most impressionable we need to be taught to
believe in ourselves by teachers and family. For whatever reasons, many
of us don't learn this lesson as children and have to teach ourselves to have
"the greatest of of all", as Whitney put
it. In either case, people tend to
believe in those who believe in themselves. This is a case of energy
following the path of least resistance. Gigs are certainly offered to
those who know they can get the job done.

As a teacher
of college age students, I purposely try to stay out of my students
heads in this regard. I want to give them the tools to believe in
themselves, not fabricate some temporary feeling of self
worth based on some exaggerated praise from me. Accurate self assessment skills are a must in this business!
We are talking about life lessons here, and using the trumpet and music as an
opportunity to understand life better.

I'm sure
there are a lot of people who grew up in similar circumstances to you,
Marvin. And yet, you recognized your blessings and took responsibility
for them. Most people aren't prepared to do that as well as you've done
it and continue to do it.

In regard to
the music business, I see a balance of three elements involved:1. Where is our passion and how much of it do we have?2. Where
is our talent and how much of it do we have?3. What
will the market bear?

In my case,
my passion is for making music, my greatest talent is for teaching, and the
market will obviously support teaching better than performing. As a
college teacher, I can try to express this balance, accept my fate as a
blessing, and watch my life unfold with a sense of awe. I get better at
teaching without really trying or caring so much, yet I have to work 10 times
as hard for 1/10 the results as a player. I've come to accept this and
actually enjoy it. What I didn't get in physical talent for trumpet
playing I was given in passion and problem-solving intelligence. All of
this has made my life what it is, and given me some philosophical basis for
influencing my future. The big surprise for me has been that just as
I've accepted all of this, playing is becoming much easier for me.

So, Marvin, I
accept your declaration of the role of luck in your life as a statement of
humility. You are simply accepting the fact that we are all a small
part of forces much bigger than ourselves. Beyond acceptance, we can
celebrate our meager role in the forces of life, allowing those forces to
play as large a role in our lives as possible. These larger forces not only effect life and death issues, career issues, etc., but
musical issues as well. Accepting what is happening musically and
letting those larger forces determine how to respond is what makes music
worthwhile. Every great musician knows they don't "create"
musical flow. We can only create room for it and invite it into the
music and wait patiently. We attach our musical thoughts to the flow,
not the other way around.

So
"luck" is one facet of the energy of life. It pays to understand
luck as a human perspective on something much more loving and purposeful.

Perhaps a
wish for "good luck" is an appropriate ending remark.

Trudy
Schwartz is a dear friend living in the Chicago area. She is a person of
great talent, a wonderful photographer, lover and supporter of the Arts and
has a great ear for music. The Bobby
that she speaks of is Bobby Lewis, a great trumpeter who has, for many years
now, been a mainstay on the Chicago Jazz and studio scene. Bobby and I are
dearest of friends who share many interests and viewpoints in regard to
music, wine, food and values of life. She writes:

I read your
piece "How Lucky is That?" and it sounds a lot like conversations
that Bobby and I have had from time to time about his career. He always
says that he's happy to be the age he is because he was a young musician when
there were still almost limitless opportunities, and he was "lucky"
enough to have experienced many of them. But as an outside observer, I
would like to say that I think you both created a lot of your own luck
too. Yes, the time was right, and yes, you both have the talent - but I
do think there is an extra ingredient that you both possess that
differentiates you from the musicians who weren't so "lucky".
The "un-lucky" ones, often embittered about their lack of breaks,
are the ones that have perpetuated this myth of luck.
I substitute the word "fortunate." Fortunate describes the
good parenting, the mentors, and the time in which you lived and worked,
where the opportunities abound. Then there is professionalism -
characterized by treating your musical gift, your colleagues and the people
who chose to employ you with respect; little things like always being on
time, always making that extra effort to meet the need, approaching the work
without ego - do you resemble these remarks? I think so. And
these are only a few of the characteristics that differentiate the successful
talents from the grousers. So, I think "fortunate" is a more
apt term. And success is what you made of your good fortune. See,
you're not the only one who owns a soap box!

In response to: Ed Soph - A Study In Taste and Adventure

Jack Wengrosky,
an alumnus of the North Texas Lab band program, has been lead trumpet for the
US Army Jazz Ambassadors since 1992, touring over 100 days a year. The JAs
have been guest artists with five major symphonies, including a recent Carnegie
Hall performance with the Cincinnati Pops. The band also features many guest
artists like myself, Arturo Sandoval, Steve
Houghton, Bill Watrous, Toots Thielmanns
and many more. Jack has played lead trumpet for Doc Severinsen,
Rich Little, Steve Allen, for numerous recording sessions and has done
freelance work in Chicago, Dallas, and D.C. Jack, over the last 10 years, has
directed big band and trumpet clinics at over 100 different schools, colleges
and universities and hopes to pass on the enjoyment of music to as many
students as possible. He writes:

Having
attended North Texas as a trumpet player, I considered Ed Soph
a big part of that education. I didn't consider myself one of the top tier of students, but I was driven to play and learn how
to be a better lead player. I never had a class taught by Ed, nor heard him
give a lecture. I did pay attention to what he was saying and what he was
playing and learned to really listen to the drums. The two things that I
remember the most, don't drag (still working on
that!) and provide a good chart to the drummer if you expect the music to be
performed well. Things that I leaned from playing with Mr. Soph which were never said: always play with drive, watch
the drummer's hands in the periphery to catch hits, stay with the drums and
on top of the band, a good drummer will always keep the pulse, listen to way
the drums and bass play together. Ten years later, I still try to use what I
learned from Ed Soph as a first-class musician and
maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to pass on what I learned to other
students. Thanks to Ed Soph for being part of my
education. P.S. (you too, Marvin)

Georgie Cooper is Adjunct Professor and College Supervisor at the
Dept. of Education and Child Development at Whittier College in Whittier, CA.
She writes:

Dr.
Schlesinger's article, "Self-esteem is the Enemy of Learning and
Civility," brought to mind a comment made several years ago by a former
student of mine. This young man had barely passed 7th grade English
with me, because he was mainly a couch potato. The product ofdivorced parents
who pawned the kid off on one of the grandmothers, he was left to his own
devices after school until his grandmother came home from work.

I frequently
drove this boy home, because we became friends. Some serious scolding on
my part resulted in getting this young man to complete enough homework to
pass my class with a D. Now, understand that this kid was anything but
stupid. (Make of it what you like, he finally
took up trombone, which he played in the high school jazz ensemble.)

In his eighth
grade year, he stopped by to see me one day, during which visit he crowed
that he was now an A student. "What in the world happened?" I
asked. "Did you finally get 'religion' about your homework?
As I frequently mentioned to you, follow-up drill may be the key to
retention."

"No,"
he answered. "Hey, yesterday I was getting an F in there. But Ms.
X said that she and Ms. Y had decided that my problem was low self-esteem, so
today they called me in and told me that I now have an A, which I can keep up
there if I chose. Of course, I can also let it go down to an F.
The choice is mine."

Knowing X and
Y as I did, I should not have been surprised; then I asked, "And what do
you think of that, buddy?"

He replied,
"Well, I think those teachers are pretty stupid, if you ask me."

It makes me
angry that adults talk down to students in the name
of theory-of-the-year. This is surely the case with the student
mentioned above, a student who saw right through the dark glass of
condescension. Mind you, I did not verbally agree nor did I disagree
with this student's estimate of the situation. We talked about music
from then on. I had a piano in my 7th grade English classroom, and I played a
little for the kids. This one picked up on that and joined the band in junior
high school. He went on to become interested in jazz, and he loved the
banddirector, a tuba
player from UC Irvine who started our district's first ever jazz ensemble as
a before- and after-school activity. Do you think this kid's
self-esteem will suffer if he's not the world's greatest A+ trombonist?

Peter Knudsvig was born and raised in Williston, ND and has
performed on three continents, North America, Africa and Europe. He is
presently co-principal trumpet of the Hof Symphony Orchestra located in
Northern Bavaria, Germany. In addition to his orchestral duties, he is also
first trumpet and chief arranger for Rekkenze
Brass, one of Europe's leading brass quintets. He lives together with his
wife, Debbie and daughter, Kaitlyn in Hof, where he
enjoys such local German pastimes as hiking, skiing and beer...... but not
necessarily in that order. He writes:

Thoughts
about Dr. Schlesinger's articles on teaching and self-esteem:

Those who
argue that self-esteem is the most important issue in education are about
half right and in my experience, being half right is usually a whole lot more
dangerous than being all wrong. As Claude Reins
said to Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia: (I'm paraphrasing here)

"Stop
showing your false sense of outrage about the (Sikes-Picco)
agreement. if you didn't know for a fact about it's existence you at least suspected it and therefore,
if I have been guilty of telling lies then you have been guilty of telling
half lies and someone who tells lies is merely concealing the truth but
someone who tells half lies has forgotten where he put it."

That
self-esteem is important is not a question but "self
belief" or believing in one's self is different and I believe far
more important than Self-esteem. For me, self-esteem is almost an
oxymoron. Self-esteem means to esteem one's self and as Irving Thalberg once said:

"Credit
you give yourself is not worth having".

And
self-esteem to me, is giving credit to your self.
Believing in yourself is something all together different. If you in fact believe, deeply
believe in yourself then your opinions about who you are not terribly
relevant to your existence. As author Bob Pirsig has said,

"No
one goes around screaming about the fact that the sun is going to come up in
the morning".

And this fact
is never more true when raising children. Children
build their sense of self belief from the security of knowing that their sun
is going to come up the next morning as it does every day and a parent helps
a child accomplish this by making sure that their sun does indeed, come up
the same each day. How? By giving that child
lots of love and security; and part of the feeling of that security is
discipline and a sense, a consistent and logical sense of what is right and wrong,
good and bad. A child who has an abundance of these things usually is full of
curiosity about all things in life and is willing to open up their world to
the "other world" and embrace it or bring it into their own.

Trying to
teach a college freshman who has not adequately learned these basic building
blocks of character which are in essence, the real basics of learning,
is like trying to teach transposition to someone who never learned how to
read music. And on at least this single point, I suspect, the teachers on
both sides of this "self-esteem" issue would agree. But you can't
replace a deficiency in onesself
belief by a diet of artificial, injected self-esteem 'steroids' either
through a curriculum or in a social environment. It is first of all, far too
late and the level of learning has already progressed too far for it to be
concurrently taught.

It seems to
me, many people have forgotten the difference between feeling good and doing
good. Within the context of my small and limited environment, an example of
doing good for me is working out my third finger kinks with a lot of hard,
wood shedding practice so that my audience is better served by a better
performance. The future utility of pleasing my audience does make me feel
good about myself but the practice itself is a
pretty mundane and sometimes miserable task. Simply feeling good, on the
other hand, is for me, sitting down with a tall glass of Kneitinger
beer. You be the judge of which motive is the more pure!

Marion Egge is a musician, a writer/editor/publisher and former
teacher, living and working in the Philadelphia area. Marion plays with the
Allentown Band, the oldest civilian concert band in the country, with a
documented history of continuous existence since July 4, 1828. She also played
in the Allentown Symphony for fifty-one years. What she writes comes
not only through years of teaching experience, but also from having had to
work her way through school to obtain both a bachelor and masters
degree and from her experience working in the real
world. I have come to know and respect Marion for
what she has done in her life because no one "gave" her anything -
she "earned" it! She writes:

In your
mailing about Cadenzas VII you mentioned your surprise and/or concern that
nobody had responded to Judith Schlesinger's articles about grading and
"self-esteem." I am so sick and tired of hearing all that
self-esteem garbage, I decided to read what she had to say and see if and how
it might grab me.

First and
most important, it would be hard not to share Ms. Schlesinger's disgust with
a university where grade inflation on demand is not only tolerated, but also
seemingly condoned. Good for her! I'd quit too.

One sentence
in her essay about hypocrisy in college grading particularly caught my
attention. She wrote, "Students' ability to read, write and think is
secondary to their feeling good about themselves, which is precisely the
philosophy that got us into this pickle in the first place." Just where
and when did this feel-good philosophical "pickle" originate?

That's what I
wanted to know, so I thought back to my college teaching days of the
mid-'70s. As one of the "new" people in the English department, I
was required to attend "grading sessions" wherein student-written
papers were circulated among the faculty for evaluation and discussion. The
goal of this exercise was, supposedly, to help standardize departmental
grading.

Incredibly,
on more than one occasion, grades for a single paper ranged from
"A" to "F." At one end were those pedagogues so strictly
laced in the corsets of "rules" for writing that no paper deserved
more than a "D" or "F." The
"self-esteemers" at the other extreme, in
justifying their assigned "A" or B
grade to the same paper, always cited the "depth of feeling" the
student demonstrated. Sentence structure and diction be damned! Students were
expected to write how they feel and what they feel; manner of expression
didn't seem to matter. Guess which professors were the most popular???

Obviously the
"feel-gooders" were firmly entrenched on
campus before I stood at the head of a classroom, so the self-esteem
philosophy must have originated years earlier. Why not, then, examine the
beginning of my own educational experience? At age 71, I'm looking at the
public schools of the 1930s and '40s. Let me tell you, I never had a teacher
who graded my feelings. Students either learned the material or went through
everything again with the same teacher the following year.

Ms.
Schlesinger clearly states in her second essay, "Genuine self-esteem
comes from meeting challenges, not eliminating them. . . ." I agree. If
so, then the classroom experience must have been altered in the '50s and/or
'60s. How? I can't exactly pinpoint every change, but one element comes to
mind that I believe is significant.

In the early
years of my schooling, everybody in the room was part of one homogeneous
class. That may sound overly simplistic, but think about it!

Abilities
ranged from stupid to brilliant. It wasn't a matter of the top of the class
challenging the bottom. Everybody worked on identical material--some faster
than others, allowing them the luxury of digging more deeply into the subject
and absorbing additional information. But because everybody was working on
the same thing at the same time, each person was challenged by the work at
hand and/or by those students who were just a little smarter. In many cases,
we helped to teach each other--often merely because our strengths and
weaknesses fell into different areas. We were all in it together, unaware of
any kind of class structure that made each of us different. The important
factor was that we were all on the "same page," so to speak. We
each met an individual challenge or did not. It was OK to fail and try again.

I believe
that a huge detrimental metamorphosis took place when educators got the
bright (?) idea to break each class into smaller study groups. In elementary
school reading, or math, or social studies, or whatever, the new groupings
were called "bluebirds," "robins," or something similar.
It didn't take long for the kids to figure out that these phony tags equated
to "bright" and "dumb." Once assigned to the robin's
nest, there was no possibility of flying high with the bluebirds.

The tag,
though not necessarily attached to a name, followed each student through the
grades. The average or not-so-bright student was never challenged beyond the
best of his or her own group. Not only that! They were supposed to "feel
good" because they were the best of their own class-within-a-class. In
the real world, they had to be satisfied being the best of the worst--or not
satisfied at all.

Once these
kids raised in different birdhouses got to high school, they couldn't be
fooled by phony names. Educators got around that by creating "honors"
classes to challenge (mostly) college-bound kids. The cream-of-the-crop was
challenged only by the cream-of-the-crop, as these "bluebirds" had
been categorized for most of their schooling. When a mediocre student
planning for college (a "robin's nester" throughout the early
years) was placed with the honors students and couldn't face up to the
challenge, then parents arrived on the scene--parents begging for inflated
grades so their kids could be admitted to their college of choice. Not wanting
or willing to admit their mistake of having placed the child in an
inappropriate setting, possibly since first grade, the educators caved in.

Thus, I
believe that the "hypocrisy" in grading that Ms. Schlesinger
deplores in college began much earlier--in the public schools, probably even
some prestigious private schools. The "bell curve" doesn't exist
anymore, and it probably shouldn't. I can't believe that it is ever fair to
assume a perfect "bell," wherein an average "C" should be
the middle grade assigned, and above and below which all other grades should
fall in equal numbers. But it is also absurd to suppose that everybody within
a class is capable of doing either "A": or "B" work. If
everybody in the class rates either of those grades, then the teacher is not
challenging anyone!

At some
point--I'm not sure exactly when--I believe that curriculum consultants
realized that their experiment of categorizing and separating students of
various abilities was not effective in the positive sense they had anticipated.
Rather than admitting their own judgmental error, these same educators
dreamed up and imposed their "feel-good philosophy." Classroom
teachers would now have to find something to praise about even the worst of
students. Each child needed high self-esteem! Feel-good time had arrived! And
it didn't matter so much what--or if--a child learned anything else at all,
just so long as he or she could engage in self-love. We have no choice but to
conclude that this latest pathetic educational approach is as flawed as the
former one. We now have generations of supposedly educated people who love
themselves--but nobody or nothing else. Egocentricity personified!

Every May and
June I get to play with the Allentown Band for three different college
commencements. Each year the number of students graduating cum laude, magna
cum laude, or summa cum laude, increases. Sometimes, in some schools, it
seems to be almost half the class! I, for one, don't believe it one bit. Some
graduate schools must offer remedial courses--particularly in study skills
and writing--for their masters and doctoral candidates. Many business owners
will quickly affirm that the honors graduate they hired deserves no greater
honor than to return to school to learn what he or she missed the first time
around. What next? What do we do about it? How do we instill the desire to
learn and the respect for good teaching? I wish I had the answer. Quite
honestly, I don't know. All I can say is "How sad!" and "How
tragic!" We do, indeed, find ourselves in Ms. Schlesinger's
"pickle." Somebody somewhere had better open the jar--soon.

David
Barry is a cardiac sonagrapher, now living and
working in Colorado Springs, CO. Prior to this, Dave was an excellent drummer
who grew up in Houston, TX through the marvelous 50s and 60s. He became
a most versatile musician and worked a number of years playing shows in Reno
and Lake Tahoe, later moving to LA where he worked on the Carol Burnett TV
Show and in other areas of music. He was also my roommate at North Texas and
is one of my dearest friends. He writes:

Judith
Schlesinger's article is truly profound. I was astonished daily when I
returned to college to witness how many of my classmates expected to be
passed and rewarded for no sincere effort to do the work or understand the
value of the instructors commitment to their future
success. I was never late, never missed a class, did the work and felt like I
validated my instructors efforts on my behalf and wound up more
qualified to enter into a totally new work environment than I would have ever
imagined.

You too did
the work, [still do] and you never forget the dedication of your teachers,
John Haynie and Carmine Caruso to you because you
represent the fulfillment of their lives as teachers. You too could be a
great teacher; I'll never forget watching you captivate that young audience
in Flagstaff a few years back.

In response to: In Memoriam -
Bill Byrne

Jim Szantor
is a former editor of Down Beat who knew Bill Byrne for 37 years. He writes:

I first met
Bill Byrne outside the Plugged Nickel on Chicago's Wells Street on his second
night on the band. This was a Monday night in Chicago in August of
1965. The previous night the band had played one of those classic
"dumb gigs"--some sort of extravaganza for which the band was
onstage (at Shea Stadium in New York) for about nine hours on a hot day with
one short break, backing all manner of strange and sundry acts. What a
baptism! (That gig had all the earmarks of an Abe Turchen
booking, didn't it?)

Even though I
was still a college student at that time (writing a jazz column for the University
of Wisconsin paper and gigging around the Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee area),
Bill was warm and friendly from the first and introduced me to other guys on
the band, several of whom even corresponded with me for a time (lead
trombonist Gary Potter was one). (Baritone saxophonist) Tom Anastas was another. What a character. He followed
my career closely when I joined Down Beat in 1970 because his brother, also
named Jim, was a newspaper reporter in Detroit and had told Tom that he liked
my work.

Bill was a
dinner guest at our home in Chicago many times, and he always brought a
little gift (candy or something) for my two daughters. We shared many a
laugh together. Once, when I was in New York covering the first-ever
Newport in New York (Chase was there, on a bill with Bill Evans and Elvin
Jones!), he invited me up to his hotel room before we embarked on the night's
meanderings. He stood up on the bed, removed one of the acoustic tiles from
the ceiling, and promptly stashed the night's receipts up inside. He
said, "Jim, I hope the New York rats aren't too hungry tonight, because
if they are, Woody's going to have a new road manager tomorrow."

One time
after I had stopped in to hear the band at their closing night at Chicago's
famed London House (which, was, incidentally, the
club's closing night as well), Bill asked me to stay and help him count the
money. I was amazed at how long it took to count $10,000 in cash, even
with two people doing it!

On another
occasion, Bill invited me to his room at the Maryland Hotel in Chicago to
show me some photos he had taken in Europe. The hostelry had been in
the news that week because Hugh Hefner's personal secretary had committed
suicide by drug overdose in the hotel, which was within walking distance of
the Playboy Mansion, where she lived. I was telling Bill about this in
the elevator, so as we got to Bill's room, he said, "So that explains
it!" "It" was the crime-scene coroner's tape that was
still sealing the door to the suicide room--right next door to Bill's!

"I'm
always where the action is--or isn't," Bill quipped.

"That's
funny, Bill," I replied. "But I'll still check on you in the
morning."

We both
laughed, because we both knew that Bill would be the least likely person to
commit suicide. He always looked on the bright side of things, and if
you mentioned some peccadillo or other of a cat on the band (past or present)
he would be quick to point out the man's compensatory merits. He may be
the only person I've known who NEVER said a bad word about anybody.
Maybe the only person EVER about whom you could make such a statement.

Thanks to
Bill, I had a small role in Woody's 40th anniversary concert at Carnegie
Hall. One day, about a month before the gig, Bill called me and asked
if I had the Cadet LP with "Blues in the Night" on it. Of
course, I did. Why was he asking? Because Woody had finally
decided on what the band was going to do for the Carnegie gig, and
"Blues in the Night," which the band hadn't played in a year or
more, was included. "There's no drum part," Bill lamented,
"so could you make a tape of it so Danny (D'Imperio)
can learn the chart?" Of course, I said yes.

"When do
you need it?" I asked.

"Tonight,"
Bill replied.

This was
about 4 p.m. I was due at the Chicago Tribune at 5 p.m. (I was night slotman on the copy desk then). Seeing as how I was
out of tape, I had to run four blocks to the nearest store, get some tape,
tape the tune while I showered and shaved, then drop off the tape at the
front desk of the Maryland Hotel after my shift was over. But, hey, I
knew Bill would do anything for me, so I was more than happy to help out,
especially for such an august occasion.

But my
contributions to the Herd pale in comparison to Bill's. There was a
particularly rough stretch around the summer of 1971 when there were a lot of
cancellations, and I don't think Woody ever knew how much Bill contributed
financially to keeping the band alive (helping make the bus bill,
etc.). Woody didn't know, for example, that when he decided to add
electric piano and bass and the band's own sound system, that Bill paid for
it out of his own pocket! Bill didn't tell me that; Alan Broadbent did,
if memory serves. Later, during one of our late-night conversations,
Bill told me that it was true.

The band was
like his own family; no one loved it more than he did. Woody used
to bark at him when things went wrong (such as when Bill sent the bus back to
the hotel, not knowing that Woody wanted to change clothes on it), but he
took it all in stride and seemed to have a Buddha-like understanding about
going with the flow. Being a road manager can be extremely stressful at
times, I'm sure, but who ever saw Bill Byrne looking stressed? I never
did. And that's amazing because it is a rare day on the road when
everything goes smoothly. It's always something: The bus driver
gets lost, the bus breaks down, the directions are wrong, the sub doesn't
show up, somebody gets sick, the piano is bad, fuses blow, or, in the case of
one tense night in Texas, something more dramatic. A clubowner pulled out a gun and refused to pay the
band. Butter (Bobby Burgess) told me about that one and how angry and
frustrated Bill Byrne was. It was touch and go with the gun, Butter
related. (Or, in Jimmy Breslin's great phrase
about a different crisis in a different town: "Danger made the
night spin.")

Bill Chase
told me how underrated Bill Byrne was as a player and how he had to talk
Woody out of firing him in '65. "He doesn't play that well, does he?" Woody would ask. Woody wanted to get
someone on the chair who could play some jazz or at
least play some lead in a pinch. And Chase would say, "He's going to be
all right. Don't worry about it." Because Chase knew how
much being on the band meant to Bill Byrne, what a prince of a guy he was and
that he was working on the parts every chance he had. And hey, how many
cats are content to play the fifth book and are a joy to have on the
bus?

Just imagine,
if you will, the fate of the Herd, vis a vis the early '70s financial crunch, if Chase had been
less persuasive (or if another lead player who was not a confidant of the Old
Man had been there) and Bill Byrne had been let go. Would Woody's
matchless mobile conservatory still been in existence in the mid- and
late1970s and beyond for the likes of Joe Lovano,
Al Vizzutti, Lyle Mays, John Fedchock,
Dave Stahl, Gary Smulyan, Pat Coil, Roger Ingram,
George Rabbai and many others to hone their
skills in? Perhaps not. Woody had many offers to do other, less
arduous things, such as working with a sextet in Las Vegas with Red Norvo. I know, because he told me (and has been
reported, I believe, in Bill Clancy's excellent book and perhaps Gene Lees'
as well).

A year or so
ago, Bill sent me a letter with a photo inside. It was of Woody in
Pittsburgh, taken not long before his last gig. In the picture, Woody
is standing in an alley behind a theater or club, looking relaxed with a
great smile on his face. Photographer: William Byrne. It is
one of my prized possessions. But that was Bill: ever thoughtful and
giving.

I'm
going to miss Bill a lot. A truer friend no man could ever ask
for. I trust that he has now been reunited with the three men who meant
the most in his life--his father, Bill Chase and Woody Herman.

In response to: Classical vs.
Jazz

Kevin
Hartman is Asst. Professor of Trumpet at the Univ. of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His orchestral career has included numerous
concerts, recordings and tours with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He
has been principal trumpet with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, the Fort
Wayne Philharmonic, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra and the Lancaster Festival
Orchestra. He has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee
Symphony Orchestra and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. He is a
founding member of the Asbury Brass Quintet and was a member of the Chicago
Brass Quintet. He also has spent countless hours in the theater pits
and recording studios in Chicago, performing with many popular artists,
including Celine Dion, Enrique Eglesias, Peter
Cetera and David Foster. He writes:

I just read
Edition VII of Cadenzas and I want to share my thoughts with you regarding
the "Classical vs. Jazz" essay.

I don't doubt
for a moment that some college and university teachers have the "ivory
tower" attitude that you write of, but there
may be other reasons why you might not see a trumpet professor at one of your
performances. If the teacher is doing his/her job well he/she performs
often and may have a job on the night of your performance. I don't get
to half of the concerts on our campus that I'd like to hear because I'm
working on those nights! That teacher may also have encouraged
his/her students to attend, but we can't baby-sit. Most universities
have performance calendars that are very full, often with more than one
concert per day and while we set minimum attendance requirements, we can't
always dictate what our students attend. I agree that
there are some teachers out there who have insecurities that get in the way
of good teaching, but I'm not sure whether that is, as you say, "at the
crux of it all."

I would also
note that although you described the problem from your perspective, that is,
classical students not attending jazz events, it
goes the other way as well. I've done quite a bit of work on the
"college circuit" (mostly with the Asbury Brass Quintet and the
Chicago Brass Quintet) and we sometimes didn't see the jazz students- even
the brass players!

Thanks for
bringing up so many interesting topics!

(Ed.
Note: I am in complete agreement with Mr. Hartmans statements about how busy those teachers who maintain an
active performance life are and about their inability to baby-sit students.
They should not have to  a serious student of
music should be inspired and not need to be baby-sat! But these are the
teachers that usually make it their business to stop by and welcome a
visiting artist to their campus or, if unable to do that personally, will
send a written note or verbal message doing so. It is only those who do not
possess the common courtesy to do something so simple that I speak of and
their lack of desire to encourage their students to partake of what other
artists may have to give. Regarding Jazz students who ignore attending
concerts by classical artists, I have as little respect for them as I do
those students whose minds are closed to Jazz.)

Tom
Stevens is the former principal trumpet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a
position he held for many years. Tom is also one of the finest trumpet
soloists and musicians I have encountered and is internationally respected.
He writes for various publications - the Brass Bulletin among them - and
lectures and teaches at symposiums and conferences worldwide. He writes:

With
particular reference to all of those professional musicians who have
experienced difficulties in their relations with academe:

During the
late 70s through the early 80s, A. T. and T., the telecommunications giant,
offered financial assistance to help underwrite some major American symphony
orchestras U.S. tours.

One of the
stipulations attached to the support was that the orchestras would make their
principals/solo players available for master classes which would be offered free
of charge to any colleges and university music departments in the
areas where the orchestras would be performing.

On the L. A.
Philharmonic's third such tour, after having been asked to do no such
classes, in spite of the fact other orchestra members were
indeed doing so, I asked the program's administrator why this was. At the
time, I was heavily involved in the promotion of advanced 20th century
[classical] repertoire for solo trumpet, and, because of this, I had become
accustomed to facing the same wall of resistance to my work as were many of
my jazz colleagues: was this the problem?

Not at all,
replied the administrator. He told me that for some inexplicable reason, in
the case of certain instruments, including the trumpet, regardless of the
particular orchestra involved, he couldn't give away our
services because of resistance, and, in some cases, outright vetoes, from the
schools' resident professors of our instruments.

A few years
later, after the A.T. and T. master class program had been discontinued, that
same administrator told a group of us he never understood the reasons for the
resistance to the program he had encountered from the schools.

Neither did
we and neither do I.
And nothing seems to have changed.

Anthony J.
Agostinelli is a retired professor, formerly a
faculty member of the College of Arts and Sciences of Roger Williams
University in Bristol, Rhode Island, for almost a quarter century. He
taught the social sciences, the evolution of jazz and world religions.
A musician since 1943, he has played accordion, piano, keyboards, and a
variety of brass instruments. He had been a member of the IAJE since
1985, and for a few years served on its Advisory Council. He has been a
radio and TV broadcaster and has published a wide variety of works in the
social sciences and jazz histories. Agostinelli's
written works include a guide to establish legal regulation for the social
work profession, a book on wines, "The Wrath of Grapes" and a
history of the Newport Jazz Festival. He also has written various
research articles as well as works on Stan Kenton, Don Ellis, Eddie Safranski, "How to Do Jazz Research," Urban
Contemporary Jazz", and "All Jazz Is Fusion." He is the
Editor of "The Network," a newsletter for the alumni, friends and
fans of Stan Kenton. He and his wife live in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He
writes:

Jazz v. Everything Else

I am prompted
to react to the Classical v. Jazz......I must say, that many in our jazz
community, often feel apologetic about being jazz musicians.....we use
"compensation" phrases like, "I play jazz, but I'm classically
trained," or displacement phrases like, "that C&W music is
shit."

We often
express feelings of inferiority about the so-called classical music, and
express feelings of disdain, towards rock, C&W, or other music which we
believe are lesser music than ours.

It's been my
belief, that all music has its place in the lexicon of "music soothes
the savage breast." All music has something to offer to man and
woman kind. I remember when back in the early sxities,
when Don Ellis was beginning his ascendancy, he wrote a few articles in the
trades about giving up labels for music. He was particularly concerned
that he was being pigeon-holed into particular aspects of music.....he
believes then that it was about time that we learned to appreciate all
musical forms. I am of that school.

In my own
case, I have an eclectic appreciation for music.....classical, operatic,
"Broadway," folk, rock, choral, and the like.....I enjoy and
appreciate going to performances of a wide range of music.....I am "on
edge" to be there when a new musical happening takes
place.....sometimes, it is hard for me to process all of what's going on, but
then, that's part of my musical education......to be tested and challenged by
the form to which I am listening.

I don't offer
this as an anti-snob, or anti-elite
commentary.....just the facts. For example, when "Blast!" was
performed on Public Television, I went over the top with it.....when Willie
Nelson does his thing, I am there with him......when the "Three Mo'
Tenors" display their wares to me, I am all over them.....and, I am
looking forward to seeing how "Broadway" handles Puccini's "La
Boheme" (now that on- and off-, have provided
us with adaptations)! Puccini's "Turandot"
performed on-site in Beijing, covered my life for those few hours. John
Cage touches me......the minimalists touch me simply.....

So, having
written all of that.....I guess I'm at the point in my life, that all music, performed
well, reaches my soul.....and, even when not performed well (as in the case
of students), what they're reaching for, reaches me. I guess that's why
I am an educator......

Marilyn
Harris is a singer, songwriter, pianist and arranger whose talents have
graced not only her own recordings, but a wide variety of other artists' work
including Jim Brickman, Bette Midler, Lola Falana,
Donna McKechnie, as well as jazz vocalists Anne
Marie Moss, Jackie Paris, Judi Silvano and Diane Hubka. After studying composition with Hale
Smith at UConn and film scoring with Ray Wright and Manny Albam
at Eastman School of Music, Marilyn worked extensively with jazz arranger Gil
Evans and studied piano with Richard Tee and Rodgers Grant. She has
produced music for commercials (Amoco, McDonald's, Kraft, Kellogg's, United
Airlines, etc.), ABC-TV's "General Hospital",
and provided original music scores for such diverse projects as the
Hallmark Hall of Fame, BBCs radio drama
"Milford-Haven, U.S.A." (Great Britain), "Yogurt
Variations" for the New Britain Symphony Orchestra among other things.
She writes:

Well, once
again you've given us a lot to chew on!! Re. Classical vs. Jazz, I recall
when David Amram came up to UConn in my
undergraduate days, and how FEW folks - students AND teachers!? -
bothered to check out his presentation/master class! It remains one of
my favorite memories from college, as David exuded such joy in his musicianship,
and was SO inclusive of everyone and their individual experience - a far cry
from the pedagogy in place at the UConn Music Dept. of the early 70s.
It blew my mind then that all these stuffed shirts were sneering at him
because of his film score credits and jazz roots (never mind his considerable
accomplishments in the classical realm, including being selected the first
composer-in-residence at Lincoln Center!?) - and it
blows my mind now that apparently this prejudice continues today, 30+ years
later!

I think
you've nailed it, as far as the so-called "reasoning" that goes
behind this behavior - ego and fear of being "bested" on the part
of teachers! I recently joined a community band, to practice ensemble
playing on alto sax, which I took up last December. I was SHOCKED by
the attitude of the band leader, who harangues and belittles the musicians
and students. Not only does this fellow have poor rehearsal technique
and choose inappropriate and generally mediocre transcriptions that are far
beyond the capabilities of these particular players, but he puts them down
when the music doesn't come together right away. This type of
negativity does nothing to inspire the creation of music, and I would despair
for the group if I didn't remember some of the lousy teachers I survived in
college, who went out of their way to rain on my parade!? Somehow, in
the hearts of all who love it, music persists, in spite of all the attempts
of commercialism, petty ego trips and neurosis on the part of teachers and conductors
to kill it!

Re. What's
Wrong/Music and Me, I think the expectations of young musicians have changed
- similar to expectations of young talented athletes. 20 -
30 years ago, it was enough to be a member of a professional team - or a
working musician. Now the cult of celebrity engulfs and overwhelms most
aspiring musicians and athletes - everyone wants their photo on the cover of
PEOPLE magazine. Without the "validation" of popularity,
wealth and fame, how do you know who you are? Any intrinsic value of
creativity, excellence and the process of getting there is dismissed and
trivialized in the light of commercial success and celebrity.

Fortunately,
there are leaders and teachers like you, who keep the emphasis where it
belongs. What you're doing as a clinician is invaluable and will
continue to have a ripple effect on every student you encounter,
Marvin! They can't help ultimately but respond to your professionalism,
musicianship and integrity. I know it isn't even close to Thanksgiving,
but....Don't let the turkeys get you down!!

In response to: Teaching and General Comments

Chase Sanborn is an excellent jazz
trumpet player based in Toronto. He also is a fine teacher and clinician and
is the author of Brass Tactics and Jazz Tactics. He is a Yamaha
Performing Artist, and his web site is: http://www.chasesanborn.com. He
writes:

I figure the
primary role of the teacher is to inspire a quest for knowledge. A great
teacher must be an avid student. When you are thrilled by the process of
learning, you are thrilled by the process of teaching. Once you cease to be
thrilled, so will your students. Unfortunately, unmotivated teachers often
turn out unmotivated students. It's frustrating to try and teach somebody who
doesn't want to learn. All you want to do is get the hell out and go to the
bar!

A student
said something last week that I thought showed real insight. She realized her
progress was being inhibited by the fact that "I constantly beat myself
up for not knowing what I am trying to learn." She was using the idea
that 'I should know this already' as an excuse not to learn it. At least
recognizing the problem is a first step towards buckling down and learning
what she doesn't know!

Barbara
Brown  Barbaras background is in
Speech Pathology and Audiology. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in speech pathology
from Ithaca College as well as a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in
educational administration from SUNY Cortland. She has worked in the
Ithaca City Schools for 27 years in a variety of administrative positions,
among which are Associate Principal of a middle
school (DeWitt) and summer school principal for 3 years of the Title 1 Summer
School. She currently is a Support Teacher at an elementary school in Ithaca
and a consultant for the Reconstruction Home Nursing facility as the speech
pathologist. Barbara and her husband, Steve (Dir. Of Jazz Studies at
Ithaca College,) are old and dear friends of mine. She writes:

Steve and I
have been reading your writing throughout the summer. Both of us were
impressed with your Education pieces. We think what you are doing is
wonderful and glad we are part of your "group." When all is
said and done (not really done), this must be published for historical
reasons. I am sure you have thought of it already.

Here is
something to ponder: Our son Miles is a 2nd year grad student at Mannes
School of Music in NYC and has been teaching at Frederick Douglass Academy in
Harlem two mornings a week - Jazz band and strings. It is funded
somehow and he is paid as a substitute. He also works for the Midori
Foundation doing lessons for inner city kids, and he has been playing up a
storm - classical bass tour in Russia last summer with the American/Russian
Young Artists Orchestra and jazz with Adam Niewood
- Gerry's son.

There are no
instrumental music lessons for public school kids in Manhattan! Upstate
New York and Long Island have state mandated standards that include music
education. "All-State", come to find out, does not include
NYC kids unless they are taught privately. Where is that at? The
greatest musical city in the world and the kids in the local PS whatever
can't get a proper musical education. And, they have less success meeting
that state imposed standard.

Last year I
worked as one of four assistant principals at Ithaca High School. The
music program in our school district is excellent. Students begin in
small group lessons on strings in the 3rd grade and all other instruments in
the 4th grade. We capture them at an early age and engage them in a
variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles from vocal jazz chorus to gospel
choir.

The students
who perform well academically in our district are often those engaged in
music or sports. I found it interesting that the students who were
often suspended had not linked themselves to music or sports or publications
or community service. Nothing. Yet, they all would tell me how much they
loved music like rap and hard rock.

I was
responsible for 800 students. Each time I had a disciplinary action to
administer, like InSchool Suspension, not the
paddle in New York State, I would ask the student to explain to me why some
forms of music (rap and hard rock), were so attractive, and, if the student
was so cool, why he/she didn't listen to jazz. Most of the
responses were typical about not liking "that old kind of music,"
or it "takes too much work to listen to." (I would come home
and tell Steve my results of my informal surveys and it would not thrill
him).

Many of the
students had never heard much jazz. Some knew about Louis Armstrong
from music education, but, of the students I surveyed, not one could name a
living jazz musician. (Miles Davis does not count, as he IS dead, even
if he is still featured on jazz magazines covers at least once a year).

When I would
probe the students further, I realized that the jazz musicians themselves are
not doing as good a job as they could promoting themselves to the younger
market like the other forms of music. When has "Teen People"
magazine featured a cute, young jazz musician? Why can't I buy a Diana Krall
lunchbox?

So, part of
the responsibility falls on the jazz society to promote its wares on the
unsuspecting, malleable, young music consumers. We can make anything
"Hip" in this country. Even jazz.

This is what
I learned about young musical tastes in the average American High school
students last year.

Bobby Francavillo is a composer/orchestrator with over 15 years
as head of one of Chicagos leading music
production houses - Intuition Music. He has written music for leading
advertising firms and clients, including McDonalds, Reebock,
Nike, Pepsi, 7-up, Pillsbury, and more. In 1995 Bobby started an independent
record label - Imi Records - having several hits,
and quickly rediscovering the joy of listening to music again, something the
fast paced jingle world did not allow. Learning all he could about the record
and publishing industry, he, in 1997, sold his portion of the jingle company
in which he was involved and has since worked closely with the major record
companies to find and market new, emerging talent. Recently returning to New
York, Bobby opened a new management firm, Intuition Artist Management, being
committed to supporting great music, regardless of category. He writes:

Just want you
to know I do look forward to receiving, and "actually" reading, your
monthly installments of Cadenzas. I use the term "actually", as I
guess I represent the contingent of marketing operatives that seeks to meet
the bottom lines and follow the "hits". (I long ago disbanded the
notion that the sacrifice to create outweighs the need to be heard).

I say this
not to be smug. I say it to reassure. Why? Because what floats my boat as a
businessman will never rob my ability to love music for exactly what it is.
My passion is to be as close to any kind of music that I can. It's my air.
It's my water. No matter what form I get it in, I absorb it all in, and piss
out what disdains me.

The
unfortunate dilemma for anything good to survive, is that it has to compete in
a world of instant consumption and gratification. (No new news here)

I feel the
passion with which you and your respondents discuss various issues that
threaten our precious art forms. This group of comrades is smart in that they
too have obviously spent hours contemplating the reality that what moves most
(people) is in steep contrast to those who have (taste). All I can offer is
that I see this painful exchange as a promising, if not necessary element
within the art itself because, as with the anything in life, things change
and evolve. We can fight to preserve, or we can choose to move on and create
something better. (Which is what your small group appears to be dedicated to;
I wish you heartfelt success in your musical adventures)

So for now,
I'll keep tuning into your forum, and look forward to the day when the bitter
contrast is not a topic of discussion, but more an actual exchange of musical
ideas from these talented and passionate individuals moving forward and
exploring new ways to reach new audiences. I'll be listening.

Jerry Ascione is a graduate of the excellent Youngstown State Univ.
program, working under Tony Leonardi, Bill Slocum
and others. His instruments are French horn and piano although his 20+ year
career in the U.S. Navy Band in Washington has led him to focus more on the
piano and writing. Jerry was for eleven years leader of the Navy Jazz band,
the Commodores, but in the last six years has been working as soloist with
the Navy Concert Band and with smaller ensembles. He also is first call solo
pianist for every major function held by the Secretary of the Navy, the CNO
and other of the higher ups in the Navy. Jerry is an excellent arranger and does a
great deal of writing for the Navy Concert Band; he also arranges for me and
has contributed three of the most sensitive pieces in my symphonic library.
He is a great cook and shares my love of excellent wines! He writes:

Marvin,

In response
to your article regarding teachers: Although my response is rather late, it
is nonetheless heartfelt.

I know that
education as well as performing is a great passion of yours. I know
this first hand as we have worked together on many wonderful occasions.
Also, I was fortunate as you were, to grow up in an environment where my band
directors and private teachers were not only great musicians, but DEMANDED
results from you and didnt think twice about
strongly rebuking you if you werent doing as well as you
could. AND their passion for the instrument inspired
those of us who desired a future in music. My musical mentors were
Victor Giovanelli, Mike Ferraro, Tony Leonardi, Bill Slocum, and Bob Fleming, etc.

Ive
read and pondered your thoughts and feelings regarding the teaching
issues. You paint a very bleak picture not only of our system of
musical education but of education in general. Im
afraid, that your image is uncomfortably accurate. Is it not,
after all, the mission of ANY teacher to inspire and motivate students to
want to learn more AND to realize its relevant application to
life? I will not accept that the lost child who sits in some U.S.
History class in Where Ever U.S.A., listening to
an utterly lackluster instructor intent only on counting the days till
retirement, does not deserve the same motivated mentor as the child sitting
3rd stand, 2nd clarinet who clearly does not understand why that part is
important. Both require relevance - but a dispassionate instructor aintgonna cut it.

In case youre
wondering, I agree with you, but think that your philosophy is relevant to
the entire educational system as well. Granted, there are those
students who - like many instructors - are only counting the days until they
can leave the inglorious, sterile cubicles of education and frankly couldnt
give a rats behind about an inspirational teacher.
As in the former paragraph where you and I were fortunate to have the mentors
that we did, I am fortunate and so are you, to have seen our own children
motivated not only to find interest in what some might call mundane
academia but also to find cause to argue vociferously
the philosophies and applications of history, chemistry, calculus etc.
That, in my humble estimation, is - or at least should be - the aim of
education in general. How long has it taken for our educational system
to fall into disarray? It sure wasnt overnight.
Thus, its going to be a long road to recovery.
Music included.

What I see
from my vantage - and this is something that has been argued with fervent
emotion - is that standards are being lowered. WHY are perspective
music students who do not show a passion for playing the instrument
allowed into music schools? And why in the name of all that is argumentative
are they being allowed to graduate? I deal in auditions on a regular
basis, and I, along with others in my peer group, can tell you that we have
people with the proverbial sheep skin
from hallowed institutions of musical learning come down to audition for the
military bands, and they cannot, quite frankly, read to save their derriθre;
nor can they interpret music with even a modicum of musicality. Dont
blame them! Who told them they could play in the first place?
Then those of us concerned only with quality have cast upon us the stigma of
being elitists or even worse. Is it any wonder that far too many
acquiesce and join the burgeoning alliance of mediocrity?

Just one more
issue before I finish. Was there more parental involvement years
ago? Truthfully Marvin, I think this at least has not changed and has
maybe even gotten better. I look back on my blue
collar upbringing in the Pittsburgh area, and, if I
or any of my friends got a D
in school or got into trouble, we received severe corporal punishment for
sure. (This is a euphemistic way of saying that our fathers took us to
task.) Does that mean that our parents were more involved with our
studies? I dont think so.Today,
even in my transient world, I see, in spite of financial issues requiring
both parents to work, an involvement in their childrens
educational process on far more intimate a scale than when I was young.

Marvin, this is
my view of the ongoing discussion on education, both as a parent and a member
of an excellent musical organization. I feel that education and teaching are
among the most important issues with which we must deal today.

Bill
Kirchner - is a composer-arranger, saxophonist, bandleader, record andradio producer, jazz historian, and educator. His
latest recordings are Trance Dance with his Nonet
and Some Enchanted Evening (duets with pianists Michael Abene, Marc Copland, and Harold Danko),
both on A-Records. Since 1980, his Nonet has
appeared in major festivals, concerts, and nightclubs throughout the United
States.Bill has been
extensively involved with jazz recordings as a producer and liner-notes
annotator and has received both Grammy and NAIRD Indie awards. He also is the
editor of A Miles Davis Reader and The Oxford Companion to Jazz.
(The latter was named "Best Book" in 2001 by the Jazz Journalists'
Association.) He teaches jazz composition and jazz history at The New
School University in New York City. For National Public Radio, he has
produced and written several one-hour "Jazz Profiles." He writes:

Marvin,

I've been
following all of the comments - including several from friends and colleagues
of mine - with interest. A couple of comments of my own:

A decade or
so ago, a friend of yours and mine, saxophonist Patience Higgins, made to me
a very astute observation: one of the reasons for the popularity of
hip-hop is that it enables young people who have no access to musical
instruments to do something musical. So whatever any of us thinks of
rap, it's serving a definite need; as always, nature abhors a vacuum.

I think that
Kenny Berger made some penetrating observations about the "Ph.D syndrome". The situation is nothing if not
inconsistent. On one hand, a friend of ours who is a great jazz player
and teacher was recently hired full-time by a major conservatory and given
instant tenureeven though he has "only" a
bachelor's degree. On the other hand, I recently was rejected for a
similar position at a state university, even though several people thought I
was a hands-down favorite and the jazz faculty there all wanted me.
Reason: I have "only" a bachelor's. (I've also been on the
jazz faculty at the New School University as an adjunct for eleven years and
counting.)

I think it's
more likely that private schools will be flexible on this issue than state
ones--the private schools have less "red tape" to answer to.

Barbara
Robinson  lives in Austin, Texas and is married to a
musician and music teacher for 50 years. Her husband, La Falco (Corkey) Robinson taught at Austin High School as director
of the band, orchestra and jazz band for most of his teaching career and has
won many honors for both the school and himself. In
her words, He is a born teacher. We recently went to a
1972 Class Reunion, and he was almost literally mobbed by former students,
five of whom came to Austin early in order to take him to lunch for a private
reunion. He has some 50-70 students who took up music as a career as teachers
and/or performers. Theoretically retired for some years, he continues to
teach music in two private schools, composes and
leads his own dance band. She writes:

I agree that this
is the age of the amateur and not just in music alone. However, there is one
thing that I believe has contributed to the sad state of school
music...radio. As a one-time music director for a station back in the dear
dead days when every form of music was played sometime during the broadcast
week, I watched the change take place. Ithappened when
those strait-jackets, the Top 40 lists became mandatory at most
stations. This began happening in the 1950's. I couldn't take it and
transferred into the News Department.

From the
mid-50s until today, most young people have never been exposed to anything
but rock and country music. Young people do not get exposed to any music past
elementary school unless they CHOOSE to take choir, band or orchestra.
People generally do not like what they do not know...ergo such names as
Ellington, and Basie, not to mention Gershwin, Porter and Rodgers are strange
unknown territory. As for classical music, many of our young are so woefully
unfamiliar with anything they don't hear on radio, that Ellington and
Gershwin ARE classical as far as they are concerned. Stravinsky?
What's that!

The people
who wrote that music and civilization have been dumbed
down are correct but expecting anything else as
far as music is concerned is rather like expecting a cave man to understand
and appreciate nuclear physics.

Tito Vallese is a great music fan;
he teaches accounting and works as a CPA in Argentina. He writes:

Marvin,

I have read
you appreciations about music "Teachers," and I agree with you
concerning the compromise and involvement that a true teacher must have.
Unfortunately I couldnt develop my musical side (this is not the
place to examine the reasons) but when I was very young I discovered that I
have a special condition for teaching, so in my early twenties, I took up
teaching my professional subject  accounting; so up to
the present time I have been teaching that subject in different high schools.
I am not an accounting professor. I am a CPA graduated in Buenos Aires University
with an active professional life, and this position enables me to teach
accounting; so I have 34 years of experience. The main point of
coincidence with you is a concept you wrote while commenting your recent
experiences ... you have to be an active professional in order to be apt to
teach your subject. In my case, the difference between a CPA and just a high
school professor is experience and involvement in the subject.

Chuck Israels - is a composer/arranger/bassist who has worked
with Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, J.J. Johnson, John Coltrane, and many
others. He is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1961
through 1966 and for his pioneering accomplishments in Jazz Repertory as
Director of the National Jazz Ensemble from 1973 to 1981. He is now the
Director of Jazz Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham.
Chuck also is a guest composer/director with various European jazz ensembles
and orchestras as well as a frequent performer with the Barry Harris Trio. He
has just had a recording released of his compositions and arrangements
performed by the Hannover Philharmonic Orchestra under his direction.
He writes:

Marv,

There are
some thoughtful things to be found in the many responses you have published
(I read, with interest, responses from old friends like Bob Freedman and
Kenny Berger), but there is one thing I cannot let pass without comment.
Steve Salerno uses Nat Cole and Tony Bennett as examples of singers with faulty
technique. He could not be much more wrong about that. There are many
"classically" trained singers to whom the vocal production of these
two singers represents a goal to which they aspire.

Steve
Salerno - who contributed an earlier commentary which appears farther down responds again to the commentary of others. As I
wrote earlier, this is an "open forum" and as long as people take
issue with the "issues" and respectfully state their differing and
opposing views, I feel it gives us all food for thought regardless of whether
it changes our present opinions. It is important to be aware of differing
points of view on any issue. Steve Salerno was an honorary professor of
journalism at Indiana University, and now teaches writing at Muhlenberg
College in Allentown, PA. His early years were spent playing lesser clubs and
other gigs in the NYC area (various reeds), and he remains an avid follower
of jazz, as well as music of all genres. He writes:

Marvin,

I am somewhat
stupefied by the visceral tenor of the reactions to my comments, made
originally some weeks back. And though Im responding in part
in the spirit of self-defense, I dont want the larger
point of this discussion boardwhich presumes to
tackle the philosophical aspects of teaching--to get lost in a peevish,
personalized he said/she said. My basic point is this: Our foremost goal as
educators and mentors should be to attempt to equip our students with an
objective, technical literacy (whether the realm be music, writing, or
baseball) as free as possible of our own private feelings on the matter. And,
we should encourage our students to question, and feel free to reject,
whatever has come before. It is not my place, as a journalism professor, to
argue that Hunter Thompson ruined
the genre through his gonzo style, just as I believe it is not Bob Freedmans
placeshould he be wearing a teachers
hatto contend that todays
rap artists are somehow ruining music or the appreciation thereof. First of
all, theres the old eye-of-the-beholder (or as Dewey Redman
puts it, ear-of-the-behearer) consideration: What
you call trash, I may call innovation. To argue that rap constitutes a degradation
of music is not very different from arguing that Jackson Pollocks
work constitutes a degradation of art. (We can make
those distinctions when were acting as critics.
But we should not make them, I believe, as educators.) And let me repeat
again, here, the criticism that not a few people lodged against Coltrane and
his disciples when they burst on the scene: But its
not music!

Further, it
has been credibly argued by observers far more schooled and astute than
myself that by attracting the masses to the genre and exposing them to at
least some elements of jazz, todays rap and heavy-metal
artists are helping promulgate the so-called higher forms of music, in much
the same way that artists like Andy Warhol and Peter Maxx kindled increased
interest in art by leaching it of its esoteric pretense and making it more
accessible to the average Joe and Jane. We see this same phenomenon today
with Andrea Bocelli, whose popular recordings (with
Celine Dion and others) have greatly sparked interest in more
serious operatic music.

But to return
to the subject of teaching: Having made the attempt to impart literacy, it
seems to me we must simply stand back and let the chips fall where they may
insofar as (a) whether that technical education takes,
and/or (b) what our students DO what their formal education. In other words,
we merely try to give them the tools, and then stand back and watch what they
create. Music in particular is a transcendant
realm, by which I mean to say its output, or its effect on the listener, is
almost completely divorced from the technical input provided by the musician.
Chuck Israels defense of him
notwithstanding, Nat Cole was not a virtuoso technician: his voice was
scratchy, and he missed notes left and right. (Listen to some of his
recordings, even the famous ones, without the background music; youll
see what I mean.) Stillby some ineffable meanshe
was a marvelous, stirring vocalist. Diana Kralls considerable
contemporary following apparently doesnt care that Ms. Krall
ends up flat on many of her high notes, or that her phrasing is pedestrian.
For that matter, Monk wasquite franklya
lousy piano player. But he was, of course, a wonderful musician, capable of
producing jaw-dropping harmonic twists as well as profound emotions in his
audience. So then, how are we to judge our students? By their sheer technical
mastery? Or by their simple ability to move and/or delight their audiences?
If the former, then some of historys greatest innovators
wouldnt make the cut (whereas Phineas Newborn Jr.
would be regarded as a more important musician than Monk, which, I think most
jazz scholars would agree, is not the case). If the latter, then where does
one draw qualitative lines? And whose criteria do we employ in drawing them?
Questions worth pondering.

Frank G.
Campos - is professor of trumpet at Ithaca College. He acquired his Doctorate
and M.M. at the University of North Texas and his B.A. at California State
University, Fresno. Frank Campos studied trumpet with John Haynie, Leonard Candelaria, Don
Jacoby, W. Ritchie Clendenin, Carole Klein and James Stamp. He was former
principal trumpet with the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Texas Baroque Ensemble,
Dallas Brass and Madera Symphony. He is presently principal trumpet of the
Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, Cornell Festival Orchestra, Ensemble X;
member, Ithaca Brass. He also has performances with the Syracuse Symphony,
Skaneateles Summer Music Festival, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Fresno
Philharmonic, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Hope, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis and
others. Frank is on the Board of Directors of the International Trumpet Guild
and is associate editor and contributor to the International Trumpet Guild
Journal. He writes:

Marvin,

I am glad
that you sent out a second email--I took the time to read two of your
excellent articles this evening. I have heard you touch upon some of these
ideas in your clinics, but there is no substitute for the Internet when
attempting to convey ideas to as many people as possible. With respect to
changing the staus quo, it certainly helps that an
individual of your stature has picked up the sword, but there is no guarantee
that anything will change. But this is where it starts, right?

I wanted to
contribute one idea. As a teacher of teachers for many years, I have
found that among the most dedicated and passionate professional teachers to
pass through my studio were some of the poorest players. Most of these
individuals had physical problems on the horn that prohibited them from fully
expressing themselves in performance.

It is true
that the quality of a music program is dependent upon the quality of the
teacher, but it is a mistake to make the assumption that a bad player equals
a bad teacher, as some of the commentary has perhaps suggested. One young man
I knew, for example, remained in the lower sections of our second band all
four of the years he attended college, but his love of music consumed him,
and nothing was so important in his life. He was committed to return to
the inner city where he grew up and give back to his community. Today
he is a very successful music teacher, and he is in the trenches by choice.
We need more people like him, whether they can play or not.

Thanks,
Marvin, for writing about these issues. I will direct my students to your web
page.

Nancy Marano is a marvelous singer
and teacher of note who comes from a family of musicians. Her father, a
professional pianist, and her mother, a fine singer, introduced her to
recordings of vocalists who became major influences. Nancys
sister is an opera coach in New York City. At a young age, she studied piano
with classical teacher from Juilliard while honing her vocal skills singing
along with the recordings of all the greats
vocalists  Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Carmen McRae,
Nat Cole and others. Nancy attended Manhattan School of Music as a classical
piano major. After conservatory, she worked as a background and jingle singer
in NYC. Nancy joined the faculty of Manhattan School of Music in 1988, where
she teaches jazz voice and coaches vocal/jazz ensembles and also teaches
advanced jazz sight-singing and ear training; she continues to teach
privately as well. Also in 1988, she began a 15-year piano/vocal solo
engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and recorded her first CD as a Jazz
soloist, teaming up with jazz accordionist Eddie Monteiro.
Her career has blossomed and has included concerts, festivals, a profile in
THE NEW YORKER by Whitney Balliett and an
appearance with Billy Taylors on CBS SUNDAY
MORNING. Feel free to visit her web site at www.nancymarano.com. She writes:

Marvin,

I have enjoyed
reading your thoughts and the responses of all the articulate musicians who
have responded to your subject on teachers. I offer these thoughts and
comments.

Although I
earn my living primarily as a performing jazz vocalist, pianist, and teacher,
my early training was from my Father, a fine pianist, and wonderful teacher,
who was comfortable in all styles of music. His
incredible love for music inspired both my sister and I (June is now an opera
coach at the Manhattan School of Music). I am a teacher of Jazz Voice,
Ensembles, and Advanced Ear Training and Sight-Singing at MSM (15 years) and
an also an adjunct professor at William Paterson University (6 years).

My early
training was as a Classical Pianist, which was my major instrument at
Manhattan School of Music. There were no jazz programs at that time and I
spent a very happy 4 years there, inspired by my fellow classmates and the
accomplished, caring, and demanding teachers that I worked with. I clearly
remember that all my friends were excited about learning our craft and eager
to become fine musicians one day. We were humble, and in awe of greatness. We
could define it, recognize it and periodically we secretly wondered whether
we would ever achieve it. We worked so hard - and loved that process. Of
course there was competition, but there was a healthy spirit and much
encouragement of each others growth. I remember
taking a fugue-writing class with the incredible LudmilaUlehla one terribly hot summer in a class of 6
people, with no air-conditioning on 105th Street and Second Ave. I wouldnt
have missed working with that woman for anything and still have those
memories and the fugues!

Now that I
teach at this same conservatory and others, I have over the years become more
and more saddened at the attitude of too a high percentage of young music
students in general. Perhaps student is not the correct word to
use to describe their mind-set when they pursue a conservatory education. A
more apt description would be consumers. A high price is paid
for tuition, housing, etc. and for that, many feel that they are really purchasing
a degree. If a "C" is given, the teacher knows he/she is in for a
battle, and can only hope that the dept. head and administration will back up
their faculty. There is so much protesting, administration involvement,
threats of law suits, and in many cases, teachers changing grades. There are
infinite meetings and time-consuming explanations, which are demanded by the
students. The student will argue that his/her grade point average has been
compromised, but it never seems to occur to him/her that the
"average" work is the cause of the average grade.

Respect: When I was a
conservatory student, I had to audition for my teacher. The teacher
evaluated my performance and then decided if I was welcome in his studio.
Today, we are chosen by students who may not even know who we
are. We are adjuncts, and therefore paid by the hour. This puts teachers at a
psychological disadvantage from the very beginning.

In my private
teaching sessions and classes in my studio, the scenario is totally
different. A student comes to a lesson, I give an honest evaluation and lay
out the plan for study, we have an experience, the fee is paid and that
student leaves me feeling that his money was either well-spent, or not. When
he/she comes for the second lesson, he/she comes ready to work.

Changing
Teachers:
I have found over the years that if I address certain issues that require a
student to work harder - like demanding good pitch, time, or sound - often
the student will change teachers - of course to someone less demanding. It
has actually been suggested to me by other adjunct faculty members that I
would be better off simply giving everyone an "A," because that is
the path to a "full studio," and, of course a larger
pay-check.

Taking
criticism
too personally seems to be a real problem as well. Discussing a student's
improvisational chorus and offering suggestions is not a commentary on his personality
dating back to the womb. There definitely seems to be an over-abundance of
sensitivity. Also, it seems that many students are much too concerned with
CDs they have no business recording. They waste valuable time comparing
themselves to the latest exploited young "star" instead of
exploring and practicing the music, and figuring out how to learn everything
the faculty knows. Show-Business parents greatly contribute to this nonsense
as well. One mother called me last week and directed me to her 16-year-old
daughters website!

Major
Music Associations: I regret to say that major music organizations claiming
to be representative of Jazz Education are "producing" annual
conventions that ignore so many music teachers and active performers of great
integrity and ability who dont
happen to be in the Jazz Top Ten of CD sales. These organizations have
essentially joined the ranks of the politics of the major record labels in
these "productions" of marketing and corporate sponsorship. If an
artist cannot afford transportation, hotel and fees for his band, he is not
even considered for the event. This is a very sad state of affairs, and is
certainly a bad example to our young music students 
who are watching! And why arent the jazz educators
in the loop speaking out about this?

Scholarship
money:
Unfortunately, good conservatories are forced to turn away some real
"natural" talents because of the lack of available scholarship
money. The students who can affordto
come are the ones who enroll, and in many cases, these are not the most
gifted, or appreciative.

Having said
all this, I think it is pretty amazing the amount of good work that
many caring and gifted musicians are still providing every day in our
Conservatories. In spite of all the problems in todays
out-of-balance society there will always be the "special students"
who fight their way through everything, for the right reasons, find the right
teachers and manage to find a good life in music.

I think the
good life in music is the one in which music is a metaphor for life. I have
been so lucky to have been close to some wonderful musicians who have lived
these lives, and whose advice continues to inspire me. We have lost Manny Albam, Henry Schumann, Remo Palmier,
Ray Brown and others this past year. I live in the hope that we will remember
and share their dedication and lifes philosophy so that
we are able to continue to motivate our students - and each other.

Albert
Lilly  is a trumpeter, arranger and teacher in Martinsville,
IN. Albert is currently teaching 40 private students from the Indianapolis
area while finishing a DMA in trumpet from Indiana University. He has taught
at Butler University and Indiana University as an Associate Instructor and
spends significant amounts of time serving as an adjudicator and clinician
for solo, jazz, concert and marching band events. He has a BM from DePauw
University and an MM from Butler University. He has studied trumpet
with Charles Gorham, Robert Grocock, William Adam,
Stephen Burns, Bernard Adelstein, Dominic Spera, Charles Schlueter,
Delbert Dale and Marvin Perry II. Albert has played extra with many different
orchestras and is currently a member of the Bloomington (IN) Symphony
Orchestra; he also is a founding member of the Centennial Brass
Quartet. He is Calendar Editor of the International Trumpet Guild and
is on the Artist/Faculty for the National Trumpet Competition. He writes:

Marvin,

I think
the biggest problems in education today may be a product of the teacher who
is hired based on performance credentials, and not on ability to teach. In
performance, it is easy to hear a player and know if they are fine players,
or if their playing is lacking. However, in
education, the ability to teach, to relate to students, to interact and to
mentor [through word and deed] as well as to open the mind of one's students
and inspire them to improve and to strive for excellence, is difficult to
quantify. Because of this, great players with absolutely no ability to
teach are being offered jobs when great teachers and players are being kept
from jobs, solely for performance credentials and recording lists.

The great
teachers of the second half of the 20th century were many times great
players, but had a greater reputation as pedagogues. At Indiana University,
both Bill Adam and Charles Gorham were incredible teachers with studios of
students who have made many positive differences in the real world of playing
and teaching. Both were great players, but even better teachers. Their
resumes of performances were probably less distinguished than others that
applied for the openings when they were originally hired. Theydidn't hold the
principal chair in major orchestras, or tour with world renowned big bands.
They did play with great groups, but were not the Glantz,
Vacchiano or Herseth of
the day. However, they were great teachers. They taught their students
to be great players, to love the trumpet and making music with it, and to be
respectful and diligent with the instrument and their study.

Today, our
collegiate education process is such that universities hire names, not
teachers. There are numerous examples in our collegiate system where
great players with no or very limited teaching experience are hired for
university jobs based solely on thename recognition
factor. There is little or no concern for their abilities to teach, to
nurture students in the musical studies, and to develop a proven studio of
successful players. The name recognition factor is [seemingly] the only
criteria by which professors are hired. We have sold our potential student
body on the idea that these superior players are equally superior pedagogues
in the musical world, when often times nothing could be farther from the
truth.

Great
teachers will be great trumpeters, but may have never held the job as
principal trumpet in orchestra X, or toured for years with high note jazz
players Y, or recorded twenty CDs with ensemble Z. These players may be fine
teachers and fine players, but to hire them over an individual with a proven
record of pedagogical success (be it instruction of high school students, an
excellent record as an adjunct professor at a small or local college, or
pedagogical methodologies that have proven successful and are well respected
by many) is folly, and results in the trend you are seeing.

Great
teachers are often those who spend more time working with students than
worrying about their solo careers, or subbing with the local orchestra,
taking auditions to become the next principal trumpet of orchestra X, or
flying off to concert dates from coast tocoast with
ensemble Z. They put the students ahead of their own personal
performing career, maintain a weekly lesson and master class schedule that
rarely varies, and develop a methodology for teaching that encompasses all
the parts of education for the future musician. They dedicate themselves to
teaching the art of music making, and put the goals of the students ahead of
their own personal goals .They attend their student's recital, concerts and
appearances, offering support for those students as they develop as players
and people. They offer advice and support based on hearing the student in
concert rather than third hand reports at the next lesson, having missed the
performance because they were too busy off playing on the weekend to hear
their students play. I am not saying a great teacher gives up their own
career as a performer. However, that career as a performer must come
second to the career as a teacher. Too few of our colleges,
universities, and conservatories hire teachers based on that kind of
commitment, and because of that, they find teachers with marginal performing
students, students who receive inconsistent or incomplete lessons, and find
teachers whose main goal from education is to collect a steady paycheck when
the real goal should be teaching.

It isn't the
monetary aspect of teaching that is making the profession weaker.
Rather, it is the criteria that current heads of schools of music and those
who hire faculty for schools of music apply in the selection process.
Our students are suffering as a result of this "me
first" generation of teachers. The greatest teachers of the prior
generation created a clear example where teaching was first and performing
second. Many of our current generation of teachers seem more concerned
with their performing careers than with their students
growth and success. This is wrong, and what you are seeing (the level
of mediocrity) is a result of that attitude.

Until
administrators of colleges, universities and conservatories hire people
looking to make a commitment to the students, looking for a place to set
roots, build a studio, teach and recruit with students and their musical
growth as the first goal, and not a performanceresume, the
situation will not change.

Look at the
schools that are most revered for their prowess in the music world and the
teachers at those schools who are making or have made this commitment.
They may have been great performers, but the students have and always will
come first with them. Those are the places to model.
Unfortunately, some of those great teachers have limited name
recognition. Fortunately, they aren't looking to build it, but rather
to build their studios through superior teaching.

Greg
McLean  is a trumpeter, composer and arranger and one
of Atlanta's busiest musicians. As a composer, he has written three
pieces for The Atlanta Symphony Brass Quintet and recently completed
"The Twain Have Met" (Editions-BIM), a concerto for Dennis Najoom and myself, written for two trumpets - Jazz
soloist, classical soloist - and symphony orchestra. Greg performs in a
variety of musical genres, but prefers the expressive freedom of Jazz.
He co-leads The Greg McLean/Geoff Haydon Jazz Quartet with pianist Geoff
Haydon. Their debut CD, Cabin Fever, is available on the ACA Digital
label. In addition to a busy performing schedule, McLean is a full-time
Instructor of Music at Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta. You can
find out more about Greg at his web site: www.gregmclean.net. He writes:

I just now
had a chance to read the latest "Cadenzas" article and
responses. As so many others have, I would like to thank you for making
the effort to address the issue of music education"
and education in general. I'm not sure if I can add any more to the proposed solutions,
but I would like to react to some of the responses.

I do think
you and some of the respondents made substantial claims as to the real
"problem." Keith Winkling had me on the floor by saying
"the U.S. was founded by people who flunked out of Europe."
However, the U.S., only one hundred years ago, had a tradition of "town
bands." Cornet soloists like Herbert L. Clark were heroes. Music was
important. In this country as well as Europe, music was an important leisure
activity and only those who were "competent" musicians were
considered literate. So, what happened? Well, I think our advances in
technology, the fact that we created a desire for a society based on
convenience, has had a role in creating our current crisis in education and
in other aspects of our life.

In the 1950's
we started to develop a throw away culture, disposable everything. Artificial
plants to artificial breasts. Pop music began to speak to a lower common
denominator. Record producers, not to mention advertisers, began to seek the
attention of this lowest common denominator. I think this may be when we
really started to "dumb down" society, a fact thatBob Freedman
eloquently spoke to.

I agree with
you that an accomplished player/musician is more likely to have an impact on
a student. My inspiration came from such a person, my high school band
director, Jack Foos. Unfortunately, I don't
know where Jack is now, because I'd love the opportunity to thank him.
Not only was he a great trumpet player, he was an incredible teacher. He
motivated all of us, even those who never intended to pursue a career in
music. Jack was the one who inspired me to choose a life of music. Of course,
I thought I would be a band director; I didn't think I had enough skill to
play professionally. But thanks to another great motivator, my college
trumpet teacher, Larry Black, I have spent the last 27 years playing
professionally. Larry has just retired from the Atlanta Symphony. I also had
a couple of teachers that were incredible players, but actually did me harm
as a player. For obvious reasons, I won't mention their names.

Steve Salerno
poses the question "what is art?" Most of us would agree that a
valid definitionof art would
include words like aesthetic or beauty. I think one only has to consider the
old adage "will it stand the test of time." That's why we still
perform the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky (serial and
otherwise), Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, even the Beatles. And the list
goes on. In fifty to one hundred years, though, my guess is that NO ONE will
be performing and recording the music of Ozzy
Osborne or any rap artists. And, as others have said, I don't begrudge anyone
a living, but it's frustrating when you spend a lifetime studying and
continually seeking to improve yourself only to have some teenagers who can't
read music, or even spell Stravinsky, sell millions of records. But, I'll
remind you, it's the 12-20 year old age bracket that decides what is popular.
We must find a way to raise the lowest common denominator. Imagine, if a teenager knew something about Bach, Beethoven,
Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington, they at least would be making an educated
decision to listen to what they "like." Anyway, that's what I try
to do with my music appreciation classes. I feel like I have an opportunity
to inspire my students to look at popular music through educated eyes.

I think the
real issue here is what our culture and society have become in general. If we
can solve that problem we might have a chance at education. Or, maybe through
education we can solve some of society's problems. But, somehow we must
reclaim education from the bureaucrats and administrators who only seek to
maintain their positions of power by catering to the non- educators. I teach
at a very good two year college, but we have to deal with a state board of
regents that is devoid of anyone who has ever set foot into a classroom of
any kind, public or private. Same with the state legislature that holds the
purse strings. I'm sure most of the respondents to CADENZAS have common
horror stories to tell.

My feeling is
that we "can" save education and in particular, "music
education," but it will take more discourse like this. And, it will take
the will power of all of us to keep trying to be the best musicians, trumpet
players AND educators that we know how to be.

Granted,
there are plenty of lame music educators, who for whatever reasons don't care
that their lack of enthusiasm can poorly affect a student. But we have heads
of major corporations who are robbing their underlings
blind. Personally, I think it's this kind of greed that has us in this
pickle. Let's face it, none of us went into
music for the money. We play, write and teach music because it's in our
blood, and yes, if it's not in your blood you should find another career.
Music is a difficult enough life even if you have talent, desire and
motivational instructors along the way.

Anyway,
thanks for the chance to put in my two cents.

Bart
Marantz - has been teaching jazz studies at the Booker T. Washington High
School for the Performing and Visual Arts for 20 years. During this period
the music program has won 129 "Down Beat Student Music Awards."
Bart is a 1986 Fulbright Scholar. He founded the "Arts Jazz
Festival" raising a quarter of a million dollars in scholarships and was
the recipient of the "Down Beat Jazz Education Achievement Award"
in 1993. Bart is a Selmer Clinician and co-author of "Jazz Figure Reading
Studies" and a contributing author of "Selected Trumpet Master
Classes" and IAJE/MENC's curriculum guide "Teaching Jazz: A Course
of Study." He has been a "Jazz Educators Journal" (IAJE) staff
music reviewer since 1989. He has studied with jazz educators, Jerry
Coker, Dan Haerle, David Baker, Jamey Aebersold, JakiByard, Phil Wilson and George Russell at The University
of Miami, Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music. Bart
just recently formed the "Sammons Jazz Youth Orchestra." This
organization of outstanding high school jazz talent in the Dallas/Fort Worth
area performs throughout the DallasMetroplex and in it's
first year of existence the group has been accepted to the Toronto IAJE
conference. He writes:

Marvin,

I have
enjoyed reading your web version of Cadenzas" for
some time now and although I very rarely respond to these calls for opinions
and suggestions, I decided to send this response to you anyway. I have known
you since I was 20 years old and have always had an immediate learning
experience just listening to your masterful trumpet work. You have always
been a mentor and a friend, and I thought I might be able to share an idea or
two that will add to the positive side of our most important profession,
teaching music.

I also want
to add that I have known, worked with, learned from and admired Bob Morgan
for the past 20 years. I had heard of his work even before I came to Texas
and met him. Bob has recently retired from his position as a full-time
director of jazz studies at one of North America's most respected and
productive performing arts high school jazz programs, HSPVA in Houston. He
and his students have proven that with both sides working for the good of the
art the end is positive every time. Even though the teaching profession does
have its frustrations and negatives, I would like to thank all those who have
served as my mentors and teachers over the years for hanging in there with
and for me. Let me share just one story with you about how the teacher -
student relationship should be at its best.

In 1970 a
young aspiring trumpet player, who at the time was in school at Indiana
University, wanted to quit his studies again and go back out on the road.
School was confining, and teaching was just not what he wanted to do. Heck, he
was a jazz performance major trying to get enough information together to
just get his chops in line and continue the joy of playing every night and
every day.

He was
studying with trumpet teacher, William Adam, who to this very day continues
to be a mentor, and with Jamey Aebersold, who was
about to release his first vinyl play-along "How To Play Jazz and
Improvise - Volume #1." He had to drive an hour and forty five minutes
each way for his weekly lesson with Jamey, but it was worth it.

One day in a lesson
during this period, the trumpet student told Jamey he had had it with school
and was quitting the University thing! Jamey, who to me is still one of the
heroes of our industry and will do anything for jazz and jazz education,
said, "Why don't you stop by the Village Vanguard while you are working
in New York next week and speak to a friend of mine named Marvin Stamm. Jamey went on to talk about the fact that as a
trumpet player and aspiring jazz musician the young man could hear first hand one of the gems of big band jazz playing and
writing, the Thad Jones - Mel Lewis, Orchestra and take in audibly what his
quest was as a musician. Jamey said that his friend, Marvin, was a trumpet
player in that band and that he would advise and direct this young musician
just for the asking!

The trumpet
player took Jamey's advice and went to the Vanguard on a Monday night in
1970, and as he was walking down the stairs to the club he heard some of the
most powerful and creative jazz he had heard since experiencing Duke
Ellington and his band in high school. The music was almost too overwhelming,
but on the break the young man went to the kitchen where all the musicians
were hanging out to find Marvin and ask him a few questions that would help
him decide what step to take next.

After he
introduced himself to Marvin as a student of Jamey Aebersold,
David Baker, Jerry Coker and Bill Adam, Marvin asked him to wait around until
the band finished the last set, and said he would be happy to sit down and
try to answer any questions concerning the young man's future in this
business of music. Marvin and the twenty-year- old hooked up about 1 a.m. and
talked until 5 a.m. in the morning! Marvin did not know this person, had
never met him before, and had nothing to gain by spending these long hours
with him trying to guide him through some very important decisions in his
life. But the music and the student of the music were so important to him
that he was willing to take time to try to direct this young musician toward
a successful outcome in his career.

I think the
final result was a positive one. The young trumpet player went back to
school, finished his degree and subsequently played on a number of different
bands. After years of active road time he became a teacher in the field of
jazz music and has tried to continue the "hands on" tradition he
experienced with Marvin way back in 1970.

Yes, this
student and very confused young man was me! I am currently Director of
Jazz Studies at BTWHSPVA in Dallas, Texas. Marvin, you never hesitated for a
moment in giving of your time and knowledge to someone you had never met
before this encounter! I try to incorporate this spirit into my classroom as
I reach out to each student and try to positively affect his/her life and be
available on a "one to one" basis when the need arises. We will
never know how this kind of interaction will eventually affect their futures,
as well as, the music we love. Today the jazz program at Booker T. Washington
HSPVA has at least three young musicians who I feel will someday make a
statement in the music we call jazz. They are all special voices for their
respective instruments. The joy I receive from them musically is something
that is hard to describe. But, the fact that I can learn from them every day
when I'm around them is also a very exciting and rewarding part of my job.

Yes, there
have been a number of times when I have wanted to simply pack it up and try
playing again for a living. There have been some negative moments that would
discourage many from teaching, but I know the Lord has blessed me with a
vocation, in a place he has set aside for me, and there is a certain joy in
knowing you belong where you are.

I hope I have
been able to convey my message. We never know who we are working with and how
we may affect each student. There is a tremendous responsibility tied to this
vocation and the art form it represents. Unfortunately, sometimes
administrations, parents, and even a student or two, can distract us from our
goal of keeping the music alive and well. To those who are discouraged,
remember, there are people like Marvin Stamm and
the above mentioned mentors who show us all that being receptive to and
caring about each student will bring out the essence of what we are to do as
instructors. This kind of attitude only raises the level of our profession
and will sustain the music we teach. Care about one another and the music
will carry on.

(Marvins note: I thank Mr. Marantz for his most complimentary
remarks regarding any positive role I may have played in his excellent
career. Usually I would not publish something as this so as to avoid the
appearance of being self-serving, but in the spirit of an open forum, I cannot encourage
people to freely express their thoughts and then dictate what they may or may
not say - whether pro or con. Recently, someone to whom Teachers was forwarded emailed
me, taking me to task for something that occurred at the Kenton Clinics in, I
believe, 1962. He felt I had insulted him in a class, and he had been
carrying this within himself since then. I responded that if the event
happened as he recalled, I apologized and asked him to credit it to the
inexperience and attitude of a young man who thought he knew more than he
actually did. Over several emails, we resolved the issue, and I believe I
asked him if he wanted me to post his original email but believe he declined.
(*If this is not true and that person reads this and wants that email posted,
he should get in touch with me.) The point is that, as long as a response is relevant to the
subjects and is appropriate in its expression and is respectful, not
personally attacking anyone, I will not dictate what one can or cannot write.
If anyone feels that my printing Mr. Marantz article is self-serving, I cannot apologize as I did not
write it, but I am sorry if anyone supposes this to be the case; it is not
meant to be so.)

Dan Shilstat - is a retired professional engineer with
Master's Degrees from Rensselaer Institute and Vanderbilt University; he also
attended Cornell University. He has worked for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, Avco Corporation, and Vanderbilt University. Dan learned
trumpet in public school in Memphis, TN, but stopped for 20 years after his
time at Cornell University. He resumed playing again with the Nashville
Community Concert Band, but has since put the horn away though he continues
to serve this voluntary group as music procurer, librarian, and manager. The
ages of this top community group range from 25 to 90; they play Level 6
music, and give 14 performances a year. He writes:

Marvin,

Thanks for
including me. Here is something I'll say to you and you decide how to use it.
This discussion started with a conversation about gifted jazz musicians and a
high school for them. I'm not gifted, but I enjoyed playing and now that I
cannot, I am helping an "open community concert band
of 65 members stay alive. The group has excellent conductors, and I try very
hard to keep identifying a range of music which is satisfying for our members
and the audiences for which we play. Over thirty years of the Nashville
Community Band's existence, we have given over 400 performances and have had
over 400 people of all ages as members--no tryouts.

The point is
that music helps keep us human and humane - as a local minister has reminded
me. Music should be for a lifetime - most of us can never hope to achieve
what you have, but you also played in a public high school - what a shame if
all who were exposed to you never knew you because they were pulled into
magnet or schools for the gifted and the rest were given general music not
instrumental music.

Its happening in the
Nashville Public Schools - they are chasing off the string teachers, marching
band is becoming an extra curricular activity and
the concert band programs will die except for the magnet programs and schools
for the gifted. It saddens me greatly. Nashville has a school director from
L.A. name of Pedro Garcia who is killing everything to do with music and
drama in order to improve reading and testing levels at the elementary
levels. He would gladly cut the school system to one magnet. The string and
brass and woodwind and percussion teachers are being fired or are fleeing to
places where they still hold some dignity.

I agree that
great talent should be developed - just don't separate them from the rest of
us so we can have that experience for a lifetime-- don't forget where the
audience bases come from!!!!

I'll stop
now-- God Save Us from the Bean Counters!

Gordon Mathie - has taught at all levels of public schools and
was, for a number of summers, the trumpet instructor at the Interlochen National Music Camp. He taught for many years
at the Crane School of Music, Potsdam NY where he was, among other things,
Chair of Performance; Gordon remained at the Crane School until he retired a
few years ago as Professor Emeritus. Gordon has been a member of the Detroit
and Vermont Symphony Orchestras and for seven summers was cornet soloist with
the Leonard B. Smith Concert Band. He was one of the founding members of the
International Trumpet Guild and in retirement is a
big band lead trumpet player and member of the Columbus Brass Band. He also
is the author of "The Trumpet Teachers
Guide" and "Drudgeries," a practice book for advanced wind
players. He writes:

Marvin,

I have just
read through your article on teaching in Cadenzas VI. There are so many
important issues involved that I dont know where to begin.
As a music educator for most of my adult life I am afraid that I share Bob
Morgans pessimism about the future of music
education. One example: after I retired I was asked to teach a course
on the music of World War II to college non-music majors. I was
appalled at the lack of questions, the lack of interest in going past simply
the music of the period and most important, the lack of love for learning for
its own sake. Not what does that mean
but will that be on the test?

I do not want
to preach to the choir
and you have had some very articulate responses, so I wont
repeat the comments about lazy teachers, but here are some things (mostly
attitude) that worked for me when I was teaching in the public schools.

We must teach
music, not pieces. I have always considered myself a music teacher who
happened to work mostly with trumpet players. I tried to avoid playing
a piece without any discussion and thoughts about style, form, tonality,
etc. If a trumpet player (or a performing group) plays a piece by
Mozart, for example, the teachings about style, dynamics, etc., should carry
over into other pieces from the same period. Teach the group (yes, by rote)
scales and arpeggios in the common keys so that they are comfortable in those
keys. Teach these common factors so that playing a new piece doesnt
involve reinventing the wheel.
But again, the ultimate goal is to teach music.

Take your
instrument to lessons and rehearsals. With young players, teaching
musical subtleties can happen much faster through demonstration than through
verbalization. Of course this means staying on top of ones
instrument, but isnt that what we expect of students? A
teacher who says he/she is too busy to practice would probably not practice,
no matter the level of busyness. All of this assumes lots of planning,
practice, thinking ahead, etc.

I could go on
for days, but let me respond to one other item in your article: .
. . is it really more important to rehearse four or five pieces all year in
order to try winning a competition. Dont
learn 2 or 3 pieces for contest,
to the exclusion of everything else. It is easy to talk about the good
old days when I was teaching, but I really believe this phobia about note
perfection is a fallacy. I think I can illustrate
my point with one example. When I was teaching at Crane, the high
school had had some very bad band directors. Having two sons in the
band, this concerned me, so I told the superintendent that instead of just
hiring a body, if they didnt
find someone really good for the job I would do the band for a year while
they continued to look. They didnt, so I took the band
for a year.

When I first
met with the band I asked what they wanted to do in addition to the regular
concerts of the year. They wanted to participate in the NYSSMA
contest. I made a bargain with them: if they would become a reading
band (the music was changed every day), come
contest time we would participate at the difficulty level of our reading at
that time and I would guarantee them an A rating. Come May we were
comfortably sight reading at Level V and, naturally, we got an A because that
was the level at which they were musically literate. The following year, they
did find and hire an excellent full-time conductor and teacher.

I think this
business of perfection for contests is something that music teachers have
built up to protect their own egos. We all should strive for perfection
but our primary goal should be the pursuit of real musical learning. And - if
you want to work from 9 to 5, stay away from teaching music. End of
sermon.

Bob
Freedman writes in response to the comments of Steve Salerno regarding Bobs
response to Teachers. While I do not
respond to anyone's comments in order to remain neutral and to encourage my
readers to express their views, I do welcome others responding to those comments.
In the spirit of open discussion, I post Bob Freedmans
comments in response to Steve Salernos remarks six
commentaries below this. He writes:

Marvin,

A few words
about what Mr. Steve Salerno had to say regarding remarks I made in my
previous contribution to your current discussion, "Teachers". This
is not meant to be argument, merely - let us hope - clarification.

S.S.
writes: I read Bob Freedman's comments about Rap, in particular, and I think:
It wasn't that long ago that self-appointed jazz "purists" were
saying similar things about Coltrane, and Coleman, and Dolphy.

Response: One
ought to be ready and able to recognize the difference between innovation
(positive accumulation of progress) and degradation (decay) without
necessarily personally liking or disliking all or any examples of same. The
fact that one form of expression follows another in time does not
automatically make it an improvement or even a valid representation of an
existing form. However, it must be recognized that no would-be movement from
jazz to rap can rationally be judged as musical or cultural progress.

S.S.
writes: I am also reminded of the fact that Stravinsky - who was shunned
himself as a young innovator, and thus should have known
better - adamantly denounced the electronic symphonic music that began moving
toward center stage in his later years. This is a sadly common phenomenon in
all art forms: An innovator innovates, then gets stuck in his
own innovations and refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new
vanguard that replaces him.

Response:
Igor Stravinsky . . . How do I, a mere mortal, begin to defend that genius? I
don't. I might as well decide to defend 212 degrees Fahrenheit as being the
temperature at which water boils at sea level. However I do feel it's o.k. to
defend I.S.'s right to dislike much of the composing that went on after he
had done so much to shock and culturally enrich the world. Keep in mind that
serial composition was another target of his wrath, but that he later decided
to take a good whack or two at it, himself.

S.S.
writes: I would also add that before Freedman et al are quick to paint all of
Rap with the same brush, they should spend a few evenings listening to some
of the jazz-inspired stuff that's out there. Like GangStar.
Or Organized Konfusion. Or some of Redman's better
work.

Response:
Rest assured that I am a very slow painter and that I always carry my own
brush. I am much quicker to be a listener. I have been subjected to the
things to which Steve Salerno refers. The facts that rappers have
appropriated a few jazz licks and/or used actual lifts from recordings made
by real musicians do not support the idea that rap is not a horribly
distorted misrepresentation of music. {I apologize for that festival of
compound double negatives.}

When a mugger
steals the wallet of a gentleman, the robber's cultural level does not get
raised as a consequence. But the victim suffers all the same.

Jeff
Stevens  is a trumpet player, a graduate of the Hartt School of Music who also holds a Masters degree from California State University. He has
taught music in both public and private schools since 1979, being awarded the Performing Arts Educator of the Year
Award in 1986 by the Massachusetts Alliance for the Arts. He is currently
Director of Music for the Berkshire Hills Regional School District in
Massachusetts and has taught at the Boston University Tanglewood
Institute Empire Brass Seminar. A versatile musician who studied with Allen
Dean, Jeff has performed with the Berkshire Opera, Empire Brass, John
Williams, Chris Brubeck, Arlo Guthrie, Natalie
Cole, Lew Soloff, Roger Voison
and Rolf Smedvig among others. He is a member of
the Berkshire Brass Quintet and Amherst Jazz Orchestra. He writes:

Marvin,

I was very
interested in your comments on teaching music, and I agree with you. I don't
have the experience of seeing many other programs, so I don't have your
information, but it is a concern. I have taught for 23 years in the
Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. And I am a player. In fact we met after
I played a wedding ceremony which you attended. I don't think I could teach
if I didn't play. I strive to get better every time I pick up thathorn.

I don't have
the resume of many who have written but I have carved out a scene that is
very busy, doing classical, jazz, R&B, quintet. You name it. I play
trumpet and adapt to the situation.

But it is not
easy to balance a playing career with full time teaching. I struggle to be on
top of my teaching 8am Monday morning after 4 or 5 gigs and travel the
previous weekend. My wife asks why I keep playing all these gigs. Because I
Love It! So I disagree with the writer who says it is an easy gig. I have no
help with marching band and I see about 150 kids a day in four different
bands. But we are making music and the creativity of our young people is
amazing.

My students
will have an understanding and love for music only gained through playing it.
I am not worried about them. What about the rest of the kids who don't play
in a group. They get nothing. How do we reach them?

Anyway - I
wanted to respond and say thank you for your concern, keep up the good work,
and stay in touch.

Keith
Winking -
is professor of trumpet at Southwest Texas State University where he also
directs the SWT Jazz Orchestra. Dr. Winking received a B.M.E. from Quincy
University, an M.M. in Trumpet Performance from SWTU, and a D.M.A. in Trumpet
Performance from the Univ. of Texas at Austin. His teachers include Raymond Crisara, Vince Cichowicz, Leon
Rapier and Don Jacoby. He serves as visiting lecturer to scores of
universities and conservatories including the Crane School of Music and the
St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories and performs at solo and ensemble
concerts/clinics throughout the U.S. and abroad. He has presented papers at
the ITG and NY Brass Conferences and published articles in the ITG and IAJE
Journals. Dr. Winking is a clinician for the Selmer Company.He
writes:

A rather
cynical friend of mine proclaims that "America was founded by people who
flunked out of Europe," and our society's disregard/indifference to the
arts (especially arts education), would appear to confirm this statement.

I am
originally from Quincy, Illinois, a town of 40,000 in the western part of the
state, which had a really fine music program. Classmates from my high
school music programs are now current members of the Kronos
Quartet, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Marine Band to name a few,
and others went on to have successful careers as musiceducators.
Quincy as a whole does not appreciate/recognize the accomplishments of these
and other fine musicians from the area, but instead chooses to promote the
fact that the high school basketball team has on several occasions been state
champions. Through the years the community has failed to support any tax
increases to maintain a high level of arts education and, as usual, the arts
education program has been cut, hurting the kids. The "award
winning" basketball program on the other hand has suffered no cutbacks.

I agree that
teachers are underpaid (I am a full professor making in the mid 40's) and
realize that many fine teachers decide to leave the teaching professions due
to low salaries. I feel though, that higher pay will not insure good
teaching any more than a degree in education does.

I have a
saying that I use with my students to get them to strive to keep on learning
and hopefully become more productive at whatever it is they decide to pursue
in their life: "Oftentimes, we don't know enough to know that we don't
know." I see more and more kids from really weak programs who were
"inspired" to become teachers by some really awful teaching. I
think the education system has always been infected with bad teaching, but
recently it seems to be approaching epidemic proportions. I have used bad
teachers from my past as models as to what not to do/become, but I learned
more about good teaching after having studied with and observing great
teachers. Many kids today "don't know enough to know" what an effective
teacher is and unfortunately are not getting the opportunity to study with
good teachers to recognize the difference.

There are, of
course, as you mentioned many fine and dedicated teachers who have high
standards for their students and programs. It seems though that more and more
ineffective and incompetent people choose music education as their profession
and are getting placed in the public school system.

As mentioned
in your article, some students who are music education majors think that because
they are going to become band directors, it is not important for them to
practice as hard as a performance major. Why would someone like this
who does not find joy in playing music want to teach others? I did not
enjoy science in school so it never entered my mind to major in biology in
college. How can these potential band directors motivate junior and senior
high school kids to practice when they were not motivated themselves to
practice as music majors. Students with this attitude have no business
"teaching" others yet they are able to go through programs, obtain
a degree in education and get hired. I teach in an "admission by
audition" program where I have some freedom regarding who I accept as a
student. At auditions I do my best to weed out those who do not have a
passion for music.

I know a very
fine band director from Boston who moved to Texas a few years ago to take
over a large high school program and he was told by the administration at his
interview that if he did not get "straight ones at contest within two
years that he would be out of a job." The teacher he replaced was
winning contests but teaching by rote and basically performing popular tunes.
When the band director tried to explain to the administration how it would
take time to implement a quality music program which exposed kids to good
music, inspiring them and which actually taught them to read, the
administration seemed disinterested and stressed again that winning contests
is what was expected. What is really frightening is that this is not an
isolated example. There are a number of administrators, parents, and worse
yet, BAND DIRECTORS, who only measure the quality of their music
programs by the number of trophies displayed in the band room. Look at the
number of people today who quit playing their instruments after high school.
The students who do quit tend to only talk about the contests their bands
won, not about the joys of playing an instrument and making music.

There is a
Chinese saying which goes "don't argue, they will see later."
Marvin, I am grateful that you have been such a strong advocate for quality
education, because if nobody argues now, by the time "they will
see." it will be too late.

Craig
Gibson  is a Middle School Band Instructor, a
trumpeter in the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Portland Opera Orchestra, Oregon
Ballet Theatre Orchestra, founder of the Columbia Brass, and President of the
Portland Brass Society. He writes:

In his
excellently written & thoughtful commentary about Teachers, Marv stated:

"In
contrast, let me state that there are those young teachers today who have
been under the guidance of teachers who care deeply for and love teaching.
These teachers have provided inspiration to their disciples and illuminated
their paths, and their students who have embarked on this same journey carry
on this great and most important mission. Unfortunately, they are outnumbered
by those lacking their dedication and inspiration."

This isn't
the case where I work. Virtually all of my teaching colleagues (I teach
Middle School band) spend countless hours of personal time researching,
studying, and yes, PRACTICING their art in order better to lead their
students. Additionally, they spend their own money on classroom
supplies, sheet music, & the like. In my urban school district, the
average teacher spends $500 of personal money on classroom supplies. The
larger school districts cry 'poverty' and spend less on necessary supplies
(to support salaries & benefits to middle-level bureaucrats I presume,
but that's another issue.....or is it?) in order to balance budgets.
Meanwhile, it is the classroom teacher who makes up the difference in
personal time and expense. If it were true that many were the type of
cynical, burned out union shop employees you fear are more present in schools
than not, the above examples of dedication and generosity would be rare
indeed. Instead, they are the norm.

My fellow
elementary, middle, and high school teachers love teaching, are dedicated to
constant personal and professional improvement, and sacrifice time with
family and personal expense to try to keep their programs growing and to
influence young lives for the better. If this isn't also the case
nationally, I'd be shocked. Perhaps visiting with those other than at
the University/College level or 'high powered high school' music program
might confirm this anecdotal evidence. After all, that's where the vast
majority of teachers are employed, and where the vast majority of kids go to
school.

(Marvins note: I must say that I have the utmost respect for
Craig Gibson. He is an excellent musician and teacher, one who motivates his
students and inspires his colleagues. He also works diligently to promote
music in the Portland, OR area and is quite successful in doing so. I find his
words truly uplifting and quite encouraging. I am also very aware that the
person who has the most difficult job - who does the most to promote music -
is the person in the trenches, the teacher who is there every day, trying to inspire
young people to a higher level. While it is true that most of my work in
education is on the University/College
level or 'high powered high school' music program" level, I do have the
opportunity to speak with many experienced older teachers around the country
who teach on the elementary, middle school, and high school level, and they
are appalled at the level of educator that today is being certified to teach.
Without re-hashing it all here, I refer back to my article. But my own
experiences, working with many college level educators over the last ten
years or so mirror the thoughts of Kenny Berger, whose commentary appears
below - that is the PhD syndrome. I do realize that there are those areas
across the country where excellent teachers and great teaching practices exist;
I applaud this and am in full support. But there needs to be a real
revitalization in the teaching field overall in this country or the
"dumbing down" of America will persist. If I am mistaken in my
views -and I truly wish I was - no one would be happier to see me proven
wrong than me.)

Kenny
Berger  is a marvelous Jazz baritone saxophone player
as well as a great doubler on bass clarinet and
bassoon. He is one of the most-in-demand musicians in NYC and plays with so
many of the most important names in Jazz. He also is a very fine teacher. He
writes:

I found your
article and the responses to it to be both truthful and thought provoking. I
just hope dialogues like this can be read by the people who REALLY need to
hear these views. As much as I appreciate the intelligence and passion of all
the respondents, I hope we're not all just preaching to the choir. The two
issues I want to address are the paper chase and the teamwork aspect of
playing music. I have been a full-time player for nearly 40 years and have
been doing adjunct teaching at several colleges while pursuing a full time
college position. This past year I began teaching jazz at a private school
for grades 6 through12. I am having a ball and have been able to completely
sever my ties with the more toxic elements of the music business, having
discovered that I would much rather teach good music to kids than play bad
music with alleged grownups. After about a dozen years of striking out in my
pursuit of a college gig, I wound up getting a masters
degree a couple of years ago at the age of 52, figuring that the sheepskin
combined with 30+ years of top level experience in the real world would
increase my chances - NOT!

It seems that as more musicians with real world experience began entering the
field of education, the educators who lack that experience circled the wagons
and increased the paper requirements for teaching to the point where college
positions in places that don't even show up in satellite surveillance photos
require a doctorate. At the other extreme, many schools in the New York area
list in their catalogs some of the biggest names in jazz, most of whom never
show up. I have heard countless tales of students receiving no more than 2 or
3 of the dozen or so lessons that they paid for from these superstars and of
classes being taught by my fellow jazz foot soldiers after the names in the
catalog have lured the students to the school and then gone south. In
addition, many of these leading lights are totally lacking in teaching skills
and motivation but the jazz world's obsession with "names" makes this a non-issue for the schools. My point is that the
seemingly total lack of a middle ground in this area leaves someone like myself, with both the desire and the qualifications, in
the weakest possible position.

One thing I
was surprised not to see mentioned in other responses is the communal aspect
of playing music. One point I always stress to my ensembles and jazz history
classes is that, with the possible exception of Art Tatum, every great jazz
player is a product of great groups. The feeling of cooperation and teamwork
inherent in music making is the element of music that can be most helpfully
transferred by students to all other aspects of their lives, in and out of
school. It's hard to remain an existentialist when you're sitting in a
happening sax section.

Bob
Freedman -
in his words, is an arranger who is
fortunate enough to have had his work played by some of the finest musicians
in the world. He considers that to be the greatest reward a writer can
receive. Those are Bobs
words in reality, he is
one of the finest arrangers and composers I have known over my career as well
as being a person of complete musical integrity. Among those he has worked
with as musical director and arranger are Lena Horne, Harry Belfonte and many others. Many of you will know his
recorded work through the Wynton Marsalis CD, "Hot House Flowers."
He writes:

I found
nothing with which I would disagree in the comments reproduced in edition VI.
I spent ten years at a famous music "college" as instructor and
department chairman, so I racked up a whole lot of first-hand experience
dealing with the contemporary state of music education. The thing is, this particular problem is just one of myriad lesions
currently eating away at the skin of humanity.

I don't know
what the underlying disease is, but it has caused mankind to lose nearly all
concepts of value. It's as though the masses have gone morally and culturally
blind and deaf. Rappers are treated (by people who should know better) as
though they had something other than detritus to contribute to the world.
What's-his-name Osbourne and his family life are
revered, seriously, as entertaining members of society. (Didn't he earn lots
of fame by chewing on amphibians onstage?) A television series which
glorifies, or at least apologizes for, life in organized crime is recognized
for excellence. (Though if the word "fuck" and its derivatives were
removed from the script it would disappear into ratings Hell overnight.) The
cable channel VH1 supports some sort of program to 'save' music while nearly
all of its airtime is devoted to quasi-music videos.

This epidemic
is powerful and apparently continues to strengthen. And as with all disasters,
there are many people thriving on and benefiting from the situation.

The rappers
and the Britneys themselves are not to be blamed.
They are victims as much as we are. These exploited innocents actually
believe that they are doing something credible and millions of youngsters dream of attaining the same stature as their
misconceived idols. I feel very sorry for those 'pop stars' when the lights
come back on and they are forced to see themselves for what they were not.

When we were
kids we'd go stand in front of bandstands, listening in awe to Basie, Herman,
Ellington, Kenton, Dorsey, et al, wondering if we'd ever be able to practice
enough to be sufficiently skilled musicians so as to become members of such
organizations. Now, our deluded kids see themselves as stars of - literally -
tomorrow if they can ever learn a few chords on guitar (assuming that they
have any concept of what a chord is), find a few other like-minded kids,
"get into the studio" to record their CD, put together choreography
which resembles the throes of some violent nervous disorder and get
DISCOVERED.

I used to be
angry about all this. Now I'm resigned. It does no good to scream at a
hurricane. Meanwhile, one does as much good music as the atmosphere allows.

Steve
Salerno  is an award-winning essayist and author whose
work on pop culture, social institutions, entertainment, and media has
appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, the Wall Street
Journal, and other top publications. He has written three nonfiction books,
one of which, Deadly Blessing, became the TV movie Bed of Lies (Warner Bros.
1992). Salerno was an honorary professor of journalism at Indiana University,
and now teaches writing at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. His early
years were spent playing lesser clubs and other gigs in the NYC area (various
reeds), and he remains an avid follower of jazz, as well as music of all
genres. He writes:

There's much
to commend in these observations on pop culture, teaching, etc. I too am a
teacher - journalism, these days - though once upon a time, I was deeply
immersed in jazz (as a featured clarinet soloist in the Brooklyn College Jazz
Orchestra, led for a time by bassist Chuck Israels).
I was halfway decent, played the occasional gig in lesser-known clubs in the
Village, and so by my senior year, I had a choice to make. I chose writing,
and I'm not sorry. I've done well for myself. But the love of music - and
culture as a whole - remains.

The problem I
see in these remarks is a philosophical one, and it goes to the heart,
really, of what we're all about: What is art? Who decides what's
"good"? I read Bob Freedman's comments about Rap in particular, and
I think: It wasn't that long ago that self-appointed jazz "purists"
were saying similar things about Coltrane, and Coleman, and Dolphy. (I am also reminded of the fact that Stravinsky -
who was shunned himself as a young innovator, and thus should have known better - adamantly denounced the electronic
symphonic music that began moving toward center stage in his later years.
This is a sadly common phenomenon in all art forms: An innovator innovates,
then gets stuck in his own innovations and refuses
to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new vanguard that replaces him.) I would
also add that before Freedman et al are quick to paint all of Rap with the
same brush, they should spend a few evenings listening to some of the
jazz-inspired stuff that's out there. Like GangStar.
Or Organized Konfusion. Or some of Redman's better
work. And inasmuch as Freedman chose to invoke OzzyOsbourne, let me add that today's heavy-metal scene
(particularly the substrata known as New Age and/or Alternative) is
WONDERFULLY diverse and inventive, incorporating (or at least paying homage
to) some of the finest riffs and harmonies from jazz, blues, modern
classical, etc. I dare say that artists like Trent Reznor
and Rob Zombie - at their best - even manage to expand music itself as an art
form.

The
overriding point here is that it's a serious mistake, I believe, for people
to take the position (as seems to be implied here) that a teacher's role is
to help students discern the wheat from the chaff in pop culture. First of
all, such a task exposes the teaching process (and thus the students) to a
dangerous form of subjectivity. More to the point, I believe that true
instruction should strive to be as inclusionary as possible; to broaden the
horizons, not circumscribe them. Having said all that ... yes, I am as
appalled as anyone at the obscene sums that some of today's alleged stars can
take home, for a single CD, without exhibiting any discernible (a) talent or
(b) knowledge of music. One would think that any aspiring artist should be
able to read music, and know the difference between an arpeggio and an
armadillo. Still, technical literacy isn't everything. Most music historians
seem to agree that technically, Nat King Cole was far from a great vocalist.
Ditto Tony Bennett. And yet somehow, both managed to achieve something
transcendent once they opened their mouths to sing.

Georgie Cooper - began a
life-long study of piano at age five and at twelve had her first
"professional" job playing the Austin pipe organ at a local church.
In her words, I heard my first music when I was a toddler -
in our front yard - from the Washington County Jail situated directly across
the street from our house - the blues. I don't doubt that at one time or
another Robert Johnson was a short-term inmate there.

Georgie continued piano
studies at Mississippi State College for Women, All Saints Episcopal College
and the Univ. of No. Carolina, where her piano professor was musicologist Dr.
William S. Newman who wrote the definitive work on the sonata form.

After
marrying, Georgie moved to California, returning to
school for a degree in English at Cal State Fullerton. She then
launched a twenty-five year career as teacher of choral music, guitar, and
English in the Brea Olinda Unified School District,
all the while continuing to play chamber music, performing duo-piano with her
long-time partner, and accompanying vocal people. She retired in 1996 to
become a part-time student teacher supervisor for Whittier College, but
continues to do sub work in local churches and to play weekly for victims of
Alzheimer's disease, both activities she finds
highly satisfying. She writes:

The one
element missing from the replies to you is any reference to school
administrators. Of course, your friend whose piece also appeared in
"Cadenzas" is an administrator, a fact that suggests to me a vested
interest. I believe you to the effect that your friend is a good teacher and
probably a fine administrator. However, I can say with certainty that
of the five principals under whom I worked only one of those individuals was
worth the powder it would have taken to blow him away.

There is an
enormous disparity between what the classroom teacher earns and what the
administrator makes. Please understand that I do not begrudge anyone in
education a living wage or better, if the gods will it. Meanwhile, a
principal is saddled with the job of hiring personnel and with evaluating the
work of same.

You and I
know full well that a jazz musician of considerable merit may, in fact, earn
less, far less, than he/she is worth. How well I recall a weekend
several years ago when I made more for four hours sub work at a church than
my friend, bassist Andy Simpkins, made over a three day period. Many of
these players are college trained and hold single subject degrees. Why,
I ask you, don't school district personnel administrators go after such
people? I have answers, of course. Two of them - ignorance and apathy.

To illustrate
the foregoing, I have a story for you. Before the 1982-83 school year
began I was given two weeks' notice to move to the high school where I was to
conduct the entire choral music program and to teach a couple of English
classes. A third grade elementary teacher (nice lady who couldn't read
music) was sent to the junior high to take over my job--a full musical staged
each year and an eighty-voice choir I had built from
scratch. The reason I was shipped off to the high school was that I had
the credentials to fill a job left by a teacher who had suddenly dropped out.

My son Jack
recalls that year all too well. I was required to do a musical at the
high school also. Because I was already acquainted with the high school
vocal music kids, I decided on PAJAMA GAME, because I knew we had the voices
and DANCERS who could do that thing. I had to bring over my own kid to
play in the band, and I found it necessary to call in all favors owed to me
by others. Just for the pit orchestra! (Not a very easy score - tough key
signatures, etc.)

By spring
semester, I had worked myself silly. One of the principals (there were two of
them) came to my English class with the excuse that "music is outside my
field of expertise." She came to my junior English class with that
damned yellow legal pad--wrote and wrote. Then I received a memo from her
requesting that I write an evaluation of myself. That really did it, Marvin.
I recall my reply verbatim: I have neither the
time nor the inclination to evaluate myself. That's what you get the big
money for! I fear this particular woman was more the
norm than the exception. Outside her field of expertise indeed!!!!!!!Georgie

P. S.
You're doing a fine job, kid. What you are printing needs to be said!

John
Daniel
- has over 20 years experience, teaching college
at Abilene Christian University and Penn State University; he will begin
teaching at Lawrence Conservatory in September, 2002. He has played as
a sub on Broadway, with dozens of symphony orchestras, and appeared as a
soloist in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and at numerous universities. He
writes:

Marvin, to
quote you, Many of these teachers will say that they gave
it up because didnt play well enough to be a professional
musician. The reality probably is that while they may not have possessed the
ingredients to become a professional, they also did not have the desire, the
passion and/or dedication and work ethic to be as good a player as they
might. Music is not really in their soul. So I ask 
why are they teaching music?

When I grew up,
it seems like it was understood that the more you put into an endeavor, the
more you get out of it. Increasingly, I find myself having to introduce
students to this concept in college. Perhaps it is our culture of
technological convenience and instant gratification. Nonetheless, I
know that people feel the most alive and the most at peace with themselves
when they pursue something with all their passion, particularly if it is acollaboration of
equally passionate participants.

As Kenny
Werner says in his wonderful book, "Effortless Mastery," many
people keep doing what they are doing because they are too lazy or
dysfunctional to make a change. Of course, this can be true of
relationships, work, hobbies, eating habits etc. Unfortunately, all too
often music education has provided a safe haven for people who are too lazy
or dysfunctional to get out of music. As a matter of fact, the same
observation applies to the whole field of education. Many times, the least
effective and passionate teachers look to become administrators. This type of
administrator is naturally skeptical and intimidated by passionate teaching.

I am thrilled
to see someone of your experience address this subject. There is a whole breed
of educators, however, who aren't going to take your arguments seriously.
They rationalize that you actually are lacking in experience! And this breed
knows how to play politics. They have taken control of education, because
they have time to do it, they don't have to worry with substance. It's like
everything else that is broken in this country, the kind of time and energy
and commitment that it's going to take to turn it around is daunting to
consider.

As you can
see by my signature, I am leaving Penn State for a new job. I am enthusiastic
about working with passionate people in a setting where passion is rewarded.
The sermon you are preaching is exactly the sermon I've been preaching for 30
years. As many clinics and school concerts as you've done, I really
admire you for calling it like it is instead of kissing
***!

Jack Wengrosky- out of the North Texas Lab band program,
has been lead trumpet for the US Army Jazz Ambassadors since 1992, touring
over 100 days a year. The JAs have been guest artists with five major
symphonies, including a recent Carnegie Hall performance with the Cincinnati
Pops. The band also features many guest artists like myself,
Arturo Sandoval, Steve Houghton, Bill Watrous,
Toots Thielmanns and many more. Jack has played
lead trumpet for Doc Severinsen, Rich Little, Steve
Allen, for numerous recording sessions and has done freelance work in
Chicago, Dallas, and D.C. Jack, over the last 10 years, has directed big band
and trumpet clinics at over 100 different schools, colleges and universities
and hopes to pass on the enjoyment of music to as many students as possible.
He writes:

I agree with
many of the things you've said about the state of music education, although
you haven't touched on a complaint I hear from many public school teachers. I
perform many free clinics all over the country, and the prevailing complaint
from teachers in the weaker programs is that if they ask too much of their
students, they will just quit. While not an excuse, I think it is an issue.
When I hear a teacher say that, the problem within them isn't a musical one,
it's motivational.

Our teachers
need to learn motivational skills. Even great players may not be good
teachers if they cannot motivate a student. We all know that a good program
can motivate students who want to be a part of the group and compete against
each other to get better. Some teachers simply don't know how to instill that
kind of want and pride. Music schools could replace outdated psych classes
with a motivational tools class. Sound silly? Maybe not if you consider the
fact that ED majors spend more time learning music from the Middle Ages than
actually how to set up a music program and keep one going. Colleges now
require so many extra classes that ED majors have to take a 5th year to get
their student teaching requirement. They need to know how to make kids want
to learn, not just how to grade papers.

I am sadly
surprised when I go to high schools and colleges and find out they don't know
the basics like scales, basic band literature, marking parts, etc. When a
teacher doesn't want to ask "too much" of their students, all that
students learn is that their music never sounds good and isn't very much
fun. FUN! That's why I stayed in music throughout school. Yes,
it was competitive and hard sometimes, but we could make good music and that
was fun. We wanted to learn more and get better so that we could have even
more fun! Kids want to be part of a good band, but a band director HAS
to do the hard part of making students learn scales, regular practice,
sectionals, etc. Why isn't that part of the MUS ED curriculum?

Karl Sievers - studied with Bill Adam at Indiana
University. He is Principal Trumpet of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic
and Professor of Trumpet at the School of Music at the University of Oklahoma
and a Bach Artist/Clinician. He also is the moderator of "Trumpet
Corner" at the popular Selmer.com web site. Karl is active in all
styles of music  recording sessions, shows, chamber, solo, and
orchestral playing and was recently named to the Board of Directors of the
International Trumpet Guild.

I read your
article on teaching. You have to stick to your guns... I am a
"player" in a teaching environment, and all of my students are
taught that it all revolves around pursuing excellence in the art (in our
case, excellent musicianship via the trumpet), and that is what we must take
to the classroom, stage, studio, wherever, regardless of degree name. BUT the
PhD Mus Ed people seem to have a very strong
defensiveness against the performance people, as if they must overcompensate
in an effort to carve out their niche or their territory. It's a tough sell
sometimes. Of course we continue to try to win them over by showing them
respect up front. Next week I deliver a spiel on this very subject to a
captive audience of educators. We'll see!

I am glad you
are willing to speak out.

Roy
Anthony
- is the Director of Instrumental Music at Valhalla High School in El
Cajon, California. Among the honors he has been accorded over a long teaching
career are: 1995 - California Teacher of the Year; 1996 - National Educator
Award from Milken Foundation; 1987 Distinguished Teacher Award presented by
Pres. Reagan. He is a member of the California State Curriculum and
Instructional Resources Commission and serves as Chair of the Curriculum
Framework Criteria Committee. He also is the father of talented trumpeter
Ryan Anthony, a member of the Canadian Brass. He writes

I agree with
your comments about music teachers today. I am very disappointed with what is
happening in my area, southern California. You made the statement about
the position just being a job. I see that way too often. Put in
the hours and collect the paycheck. GET A DIFFERENT JOB! Our
area also puts to much emphasis on competition,
both during marching season and festival season. I refuse to be a part
of this group and so my voice is not heard often with our organization.

Another
problem is funding. I feel many good potential teachers are not coming
to our area because nearly 50% of my time must be spent raising money to keep
my program going. I do this for the sake of the students, but it is
burning me up. Unfortunately (or fortunately) next year will be my last
as I am retiring. I have talked to many individuals as I want the best
replacement possible, but many will not even think of the job because of the
fund raising hours. My budget from the school is depleted by October;
then I raise money for the rest of the year. I love my job and I love
my students, but there definitely is burn out. I feel I have the best
job given to man, shaping the lives of individuals and exposing them to this
music experience. I am thrilled by the many students of mine that go on
in the field of music or continue with music as a hobby. That is my
reward along with the Jason Hannas that I have
worked with. (Thank you Marvin for your contribution to his life, he is
doing well.)

Anthony J.
Agostinelli - is a retired professor, formerly a
faculty member of the College of Arts and Sciences of Roger Williams
University in Bristol, Rhode Island, for almost a quarter century. He
taught the social sciences, the evolution of jazz and world religions.
A musician since 1943, he has played accordion, piano, keyboards, and a
variety of brass instruments. He had been a member of the IAJE since
1985, and for a few years served on its Advisory Council. He has been a
radio and TV broadcaster and has published a wide variety of works in the
social sciences and jazz histories. Agostinelli's
written works include a guide to establish legal regulation for the social
work profession, a book on wines, "The Wrath of Grapes" and a
history of the Newport Jazz Festival. He also has written various
research articles as well as works on Stan Kenton, Don Ellis, Eddie Safranski, "How to Do Jazz Research," Urban
Contemporary Jazz", and "All Jazz Is Fusion." He is the
Editor of "The Network," a newsletter for the alumni, friends and
fans of Stan Kenton. He and his wife live in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He
writes:

I read
through your article in Cadenzas - Edition VI and concur with you on these
following issues which I have culled from your article
though these are listed as they appear in your article, they are not listed
in order of importance, I've only organized these issues so I can understand
them better I wholeheartedly support your positions on
these following matters.

In supporting
your positions, I have organized a listing of....

Marvin Stamm's
Principles for Teaching and Teachers

Teachers
need to:

-- receive a
salary that will attract quality people to the profession-- provide
guidance and inspiration to their students and to their community-- show students
the joy and fulfillment of taking on tasks they are unable to perform, then
working to master them-- encourage
students every step of the way and never let their diligence flag in helping
students accomplish their dreams-- provide
students with such a wonderful learning experience, they create in them an
insatiable hunger that ensures they never lose sight of why they want to play
accomplish their goals-- know the
purpose of their teaching-- to inspire
and enlighten young minds, and, in the case of the Arts, to teach them things
of the heart-- to expose our
youth to things of great quality that will add much to their lives-- to graduate
people who have a real desire to learn more than what is necessary to get
through the course work beyond acquiring their certification to teach-- to let his or
her students know that he/she expects them to work to the level of their
potential and that he/she will accept nothing less

Music
education's mission involves the following:

-- music
education motivates students to play music because.....music is something one
experiences, something one tangibly feels; and every experience helps garner
more knowledge, making one a better teacher-- when one
ceases playing, a measure of growth and acquisition of knowledge is
diminished-- if one no
longer feels the excitement of creating and performing 
he/she will not become a teacher who provides the inspiration that will
motivate others to work toward excellence, seek knowledge, and pursue their
dreams-- playing and
being involved in music is not just for the professional. but
for everyone to enjoy on whatever level they are able or wish to be
1. It keeps the individual involved and working to improve
their playing
2. It contributes to the cultural life of their
communities
3. It helps to keep the music vital and alive by exposing
the next generations to this most important entity called The Arts.-- music
education permits students to continue to be involved in the Arts in some
manner all of their lives, either as participants on some level or as fans
and patrons-- the reality
of any musician is that they
continually seek improvement in everything they do-- to continue
to learn and grow in music, as in life, these experiences must be repeated
many times in order to reinforce what one has previously learned while also
revealing new paths.....and,

Dr. Robert Morgan's Counterpoint

A teacher
must.....

-- impart a
subject for which he/she has passion, skills, and a knack to communicate-- expect to
have better salaries (perhaps double what they are now )-- be highly
regarded in the community-- teach in
schools that are safe, hallowed, quiet, reverential temples to learning,
wisdom, etc.

Professor (Retired) Anthony J. Agostinelli's Ramblings

Teaching is a
vocation - a vocation in the sense that it consumes one's life - the center
of her/his being. As Ellington mused, "Music is my
mistress." One's vocation must be: "Teaching is my
mistress/master." It is fixed in the soul of one's being.
Having just retired from a quarter century of teaching in higher education,
my interests have always been to involve the student in the process of
life-long learning, and loving it. One often has to ask them to suspend
their disbelief, in order to introduce students to other beliefs
beliefs that have stood the test of time, and beliefs which test the beliefs
of time. In order for students to do that, they must open themselves up
to becoming learned scholars, if you will.

Institutions
of learning have been created to perpetuate themselves. This need to
self-perpetuate often operates in such a way that faculty development is not
enhanced, that student learning becomes secondary to keeping students happy
as social beings, and that core curriculum becomes the creature of political
correctness, rather than academic content! The learning university on
the other hand is mindful that student learning, faculty development, and a
state of the art technology is dedicated to its mission -- to educate, yes to
educate students to a life of learning.

Since the
arts add to the beauty of life, an arts curriculum is an essential part of
one's higher education. To relegate the arts to a lesser position is to
deny students the opportunity to creatively soar, whilst learning one's
profession.

If a
university's mission is to provide educational opportunities for a diverse
community, then that diversity must also carry over to its academic content.

The
university faculty is the jewel in the crown of higher education.....pay her/him
adequately, enhance her/his own learning, provide incentive for inspiring
her/his students to life-long learning and a dedication to excellence.

Marilyn
Harris
- is a singer, songwriter, pianist and arranger whose talents have graced
not only her own recordings, but a wide variety of other artists' work
including Jim Brickman, Bette Midler, Lola Falana,
Donna McKechnie, as well as jazz vocalists Anne
Marie Moss, Jackie Paris, Judi Silvano and Diane Hubka. After studying composition with Hale Smith
at UConn and film scoring with Ray Wright and Manny Albam
at Eastman School of Music, Marilyn worked extensively with jazz arranger Gil
Evans and studied piano with Richard Tee and Rodgers Grant. She has
produced music for commercials (Amoco, McDonald's, Kraft, Kellogg's, United
Airlines, etc.), ABC-TV's "General Hospital",
and provided original music scores for such diverse projects as the
Hallmark Hall of Fame, BBCs radio drama
"Milford-Haven, U.S.A." (Great Britain), "Yogurt
Variations" for the New Britain Symphony Orchestra among other things.
She writes:

I read with
interest your article on TEACHERS and Bob Morgan's response. You do a
fine job enumerating the problems inherent in the education field today,
especially pointing out the potential HARM of training and hiring an
uninspired teacher. This certainly confirms my early choice NOT to
teach - I knew I didn't have the "fire" nor patience to share my
own enthusiasm for music with students - I never heard "the calling"
to teach - certainly not "officially" as within an educational
institution. If individuals wanted to know about my career, experience,
musical choices and influences, I would certainly share THAT - (and at
length!!) - but there have been few people who
really wanted to know what made me tick musically.

It occurs to
me that perhaps the reason you're not receiving more response to the articles
you've written and posted online in CADENZAS from your website visitors is
that THEY ALL AGREE with your point of view, and you've already said
everything that needs to be said!? And how redundant does it feel to
email a colleague to just say "Amen!"?? (Granted it's
incredibly affirming to be on the receiving end and HEAR that
"Amen"!!)

Dr. David
Clements - isa jazz drummer, video producer, and Doctor of Chiropractic, actively
performs in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. He served as road manager and sound
engineer for the 1999 and 2001 tours of Mike Vaxs Big Band which featured
alumni of the Stan Kenton Orchestra He also recorded the bands
live CD, which will be released shortly. My
association with Marvin Stamm dates back to 1970,
when I was a drummer for a band at a summer jazz clinic at the University of
Oklahoma. Marvin was my director, and somehow we have been crossing paths
ever since.He writes:

Very
thoughtful and thought-provoking issue. Thanks for all the work in putting it
on the Web. When we were out last year with the Vax
band last spring ('01), I was once again struck by the apathy we encountered
sometimes, but we focused on those few we were able to reach. It really isn't
the kids' fault, but that of the system. I remember that at a clinic in
Bayonne, there was one drummer that showed up for the clinic....the other one
in the school's band thought baseball practice was more important than such a
once in a lifetime opportunity. So Gary Hobbs and John Akal (Latin perc) proceeded to give that one kid a clinic that will
probably keep him on a good path for years. When we played in Philadelphia
(Plymouth-Whitemarsh), it was as the closer to a
high school jazz festival. The band was cookin',
and took a break. During the break, awards were handed out to the winning
bands for the day. You guessed it...the band came out to a nearly empty
hall---maybe 25 students were left, out of several hundred. They got their
cheesy trophies and split, leaving the opportunity to hear one of the
greatest bands on the planet. High school programs all seem to be about
trophies and providing halftime entertainment (the real reason band programs
are tolerated, in my opinion). When I was that age, I remember cutting
classes to hear the Kenton band doing a clinic at a school across town, and I
would have crawled over there on my knees if I had to. NOTHING would
have stopped me! What has happened?

I heard
someone on television the other day (wish I could remember who it was) say
that maybe we should be teaching Rap in schools, because putting any art form
in a college seems like the surest way to kill it. I agree up to a point, but
maybe we just have to take our victories where we can for now. What I have
seen in high school music departments is pretty pathetic, but for now it is
what we have to work with. There is a LOT more I could say, but much would
just be an echo of your excellent article.

Anyway, just
wanted to say hi, and sound off a bit, and now I have a gig to get to, so
take good care of yourself, and keep that flame burning, because we may need
it more than ever now.

Tim Bowen - is former
split-lead and jazz trumpet on the USAF Airmen of Note, 1967 thru 1968, and
again 1977 to 1979. He was one of the first call trumpet players for
both lead and jazz in the Washington, DC area for 15 years between 1975 thru
1984. Tim has worked with Louis Bellson, Tony
Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Steve and Edye, and many
other celebrities at the Kennedy Center. He also was a guest soloist
with the U.S. Navy Commodores. Upon retirement from the Air Force, he
moved to California and retired from the rigors of the music business. He
writes:

It's good to
read your article and I agree whole-heartedly. I feel the need to toss
in a comment. If you knew me, you wouldn't find that need a rarity on
my part at all.

Many of the
problems with non-dedicated teachers are created by the schooling bureaucracy
that permeates the educational systems today. A teacher "with the
calling" can easily be discouraged by the apathy of the school system
itself. Unfortunately, this has been going on for so many years, that
our new teachers are being taught by the older discouraged ones. This has
been passed down for as many generations as I can remember.

When I
graduated high school in 1962, even then, the football players had all of
their equipment paid for, while the band parents had to man coffee and cookie
and cake booths at those same games to raise money for band equipment.
However, the band was expected to support all the sport functions.

Now - and I
really do believe this is due to lack of fundamental music education in the
schools - what we hear on pop radio is really not music at all. It's
just noise. I'm not speaking to musical style, as I have no prejudice
as to rap, rock, R&B, or whatever. Of course I do have my
preferences. However, I do have a built in bigotry on anything done
badly, including those musical forms. Pop music has been reduced to
"formula," with very little creativity based in fundamental musical
knowledge. It's a shame, because the music business panders to the
lowest common denominator of listener. Unfortunately, this is the only
exposure most children get from the time in kindergarten to senior year in
high school. Many fine educators are left feeling as though they are
spitting in the wind.

On the other
hand, having been a professional musician for over 30 years, I have also
witnessed the ignorance of the so called "trained" musicians who
have become teachers. Far too many are of the "my mind is
made up, don't confuse me with any facts" syndrome. Since they are
not usually performers, they get caught up in theory, instead of the practical
when it comes to recommending things like, how to practice, what mouthpiece
to use, what kind of horn to play, what kind of music is good or bad,
etc. In college, I knew a professor with a Doctorate, who had brass
musicians putting braces ontheir teeth if
the students dental formation was not conducive to the
particular instrument they were playing, according to his opinion. He
turned a trumpet player, into an unwilling trombone player with his idiotic
ideas.

Luckily, we
still have the professionals like you, Marvin, who can still really have an
influence on these open-minded students.

Kenny
Hillman
- is an old friend  an excellent
trumpeter, pianist and arranger. WheninLAHe worked with the
bands of Les Elgart, Les Brown, Claude Gordon, Russ
Morgan, Tex Beneke, Al Porcino
and Art DePew. He moved to Reno, NV, working in the
show bands there and at lake Tahoe, playing, conducting and writing for stars
such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Roger, Miller, Jimmy Durante, Sarah Vaughn, Petula Clark and more. He also worked with
American-Hawaii Cruises as Musical Coordinator, conducting for the showroom
acts and organizing the "Special Events." A person of many talents,
he has also acted in motion picturesand TV - eleven
movies, and four TV serials, including Kenny Rogers' 4-part series, "The
Gambler". Kenny recently moved to Clayton, GA where he continues to be
active playing piano and teaching the "Louis Maggio System for
Brass", upright and electric bass, and basic piano. He writes:

I read
somewhere that if you loved what you did, you'd
never work a day in your life! Personally, if the road bands were still out
there, I'd be on one of them! I'm turning 69 on the 25th of this month.

Well, I must
tell you that working with some great lead players gave me the tools to fill
my musical bag of tricks. But it was by trying to sleep on the bus or
in the back seat of a '59 Ford station wagon, or in the truck, and reaching
the location late, donning a dirty white shirt, not shaving, being tired,
that I gained my musical Character!

Do the young,
bright, talented youth of today have such opportunity, as did we, in our
prime? And do the teachers have in their history the experience
necessary to impart such wonderful moments as those of ours?

I dare say
no! For only when one has known those episodes that fill Mind, Heart,
and Soul so completely, as do my recollections of each road trip and the
pleasantries which accompanied them, will they be able to - through
understanding - direct the very lives of our future, and the future of music,
in general.

Therefore,
the entire spectrum is left to academia! And at best, it is
ill-bunkered to attempt such a voyage. For, as the song goes:
"Time Waits for No One"!

Your article
broaches a near-fatal answer to the question of the future and music, in the
realm of "Playing", as you put it! "It, As All Things, Shall
Pass! Enjoyed your writing, Marvin. Please
keep it up! We must all take part by doing what each of us can to
preserve that which has played such a grand part in our lives.

In response to: Two Thoughts -
Young People

Doug Meeuwsen - is a full time high school band director in the
Orange County, CA area. An excellent musician and lead trumpet player, he is
conversant in all styles of music. He performs in a brass quintet, in chamber
orchestras, freelances playing in Jazz, Funk and
Salsa bands and does studio work in the San Diego area. For many years, he
taught privately, as many as 50 private trumpet students a week, but upon
becoming a full time band director, stopped taking private students. In his
words, I absolutely love being a trumpet player. He writes:

I feel like I
may have something to add to your thoughts about the state of education. You
might recall that I teach High School in Mission Viejo, CA and also play a
lot of gigs on the side. As a player I'm good enough to stay about as busy as
I want to be (3 to 6 gigs a week let's say) but Im
not good enough to make a decent living playing the trumpet in San Diego. So
a few years ago, I decided to use the credentials that I got way back in 1982
from Western Michigan University. At my school I work with another full-time
Band Director, and we have an outstanding program of 3 Bands, 2 Jazz
Ensembles, 2 orchestras, and I teach a very cool composition class.

Since I
am in the thick of the public school and music scene and hang with lots of
kids finishing up their degrees in music, I see education from a lot of angles.
I agree that there are problems with the state of music in schools, and all
of the things that people point to as reasons are probably valid. However,
there are good programs all over the country, and in all kinds of
neighborhoods, and in all kinds of schools. All these good programs have
essentially one thing in common: a really good music teacher. Because the
teacher is musically effective, the program is supported and becomes
successful, and things get on a roll. I think it all comes down to how strong
the teacher is musically. There are tons of examples of teachers with weak
organizational skills that have good music programs in schools. The fact is
that there are all kinds of people willing to help out with non-musical
problems, if the students are doing good things musically.

Now that
leads us to wonder why there are so many bad programs out there. Hmmm ... Im
going to be bold and go out on a limb. I really think that a huge part of the
problem is that the teachers in most places are musically weak. When the
teacher is musically ineffective, there really is not much reason for a kid
to sign up, no reason for parental or administrative support, financial
support, etc. When you hear a teacher complaining of this, it is a sign of
one of two problems: either that teacher has proven to be weak or the
teachers before them were proven to be weak. I see good teachers turn
programs around all the time. And it does not really take that long. I see
bad teachers do the same thing in reverse also, and it seems like it takes
about the same amount of time to ruin it as it does to build it. About 4
years or so, enough for all the previous kids to graduate.

So now we
really should be asking ourselves, "Why are there not more great music
teachers".... Right? Well Marvin, I know the answer:

Too many
people get scared out of teaching after hearing how it's jungle out there, or
they hear people moaning about no support, bad administration, worthless kids
with no motivation, Marching Band, ridiculous hours, etc. etc.... I see great
players and great people who would make awesome teachers graduate from
college and then just switch gears because they think teaching is not for
them. And then, the really weak musicians that happen to graduate go out and
get jobs; and because they are weak musicians, their programs suck, and they
DESERVE no support. The kids know it sucks so they quit or mope around,
marching band is a nightmare, and it's a total drag. Then they tell the next
crop of great playing, dynamic, vibrant, funny, charismatic,
just-getting-ready-to-graduate, music majors, "Teaching sucks; don't do
it." And then the great teacher-to-be
gets scared and decides to be get an MBA, or work in a bank or something
else.

When was the
last time you saw somebody telling somebody how cool it is teaching high
school music? OK... here you go...

First off, I
make 67,000 bucks a year in my 8th year teaching. Every day I work from 7:00
am till about 4:30, but I am off from 10:00am till 2:00pm everyday.
One class is before school, and two are after
school, giving me plenty of time to do whatever I want. Now that is a better
workday than most people have - three hours of work in the morning, two at
the end of the day. Cake.

Secondly, the
kids we teach are highly motivated and they can PLAY. We do killer concert
band and wind ensemble literature that is a true challenge to OUR musical
abilities as well as the kids. And all we have to do is show up ready to go
with a plan that they KNOW is going to make them better THAT DAY. Which is a
piece of cake because we learned how do it when were
practicing endless hours, when we wanted to set the world on fire and play in
Thad's band, and get to record a solo like yours on "AhunkAhunk"...so it takes no time whatsoever to
prepare for a rehearsal. I go to the coffee shop every day and get paid for
it as if I'm grading papers! I read the whole L.A times when the other
teachers are "prepping", then I go back
and teach my composition class which is loaded with geniuses. I get to
produce a CD of their original stuff. I engineer it, call the players, help
rehearse it if they want, mix it, master it in
pro-tools.... Its a blast and comes out great for all
eternity. Then I go to the gym and get ready for jazz ensemble after school.
We play only tunes straight out of the professional libraries of name
bands...Basie, Florence, Holman, Thad, Woody, Kubis
etc..... Whats a drag?

Thirdly,
Marching Band is easy. We have the best marching band in southern California.
We have a killer staff of people who live and breathe drum corp and marching band. We give them our full confidence
and let them do their thing. There are thousands of these poor chaps walking
around with an empty pit in their stomach where Drum Crops International used
to be before they "aged out" at age 22. All they want to do is work
for cheap with a marching band somewhere. I turn on the lights, open the
bathrooms, drink my Starbucks, mosey on down to the field and be cool and funny with the kids who are working their
butts off to make a "winner". Rehearse the music really hard for a
while, hang out drink some Starbucks... Its pretty cool
actually.

Then when the
middle of June comes around, I get 2 months of PAID VACATION ...and I do all
the gigs I can, but ONLY cool ones that are great music, and keep my
abilities up... Oh, by the way, I still have a whole hour in the school day
devoted to nothing but MY Practice. So that I can keep getting better and
better, (or at least not worse and worse!)

So, my
simplistic points in a nutshell are: 1. The
quality of a school music program is directly related to the musical
abilities of the teacher. If a school program has been cursed with an
ineffective music teacher, it takes about 4 years to turn it around. 2. The
amount of support a teacher gets is directly related to the musical result of
the teaching. 3. Too
many people hear negative things about teaching. Most of these negative
things are from either non-teachers, or musicians who have been ineffective
as music teachers. 4.
Teaching is fun, easy, rewarding, and musical, and it always will be. Lets
see if anyone else would like to add to my short list of wonderful reasons to
be a music teacher in a school.

OK... I'm
done now, I guess... take care Marvin...It was awesome meeting you in Hawaii

Doug Meeuwsen, San Diego, CA

Phil
Sutherland
- is a Junior High School Band Director and trumpet player. Feeling
involved on a "hands on" level, he writes:

I just read
your thoughts "Young People" and I
unfortunately have to agree with your observations. As a band director
at the junior high level, I have also struggled with the lack of motivation
for success and a lack of pride in students' work. Enough to get by
seems to be the level at which kids achieve unless motivated by tangible rewards
(i.e. parties, pizza, candy, cokes, etc.). I've found that a good way
to begin working students out of this self centered
thinking is to begin with a tangible reward when something is done correctly
and to verbally enhance their success, even if it's just getting to the
rehearsal on time. Over the course of the year as students learn that
success is rewarded, I lessen the tangible reward but increase the
praise. I have seen students begin to take personal pride in
accomplishments and work toward a common goal of overall success for the
group, and even encourage, praise or criticize others for certain
behavior. I remember one student who even chastised a friend for being
late to a football game by saying, "You don't still need a treat to get
here on time, do you?"

We recently
finished up a very successful year, and the reward for me was watching them
sit up with real pride as they were listening to the tape knowing they did
their best and advanced to the next level for competition.

I think
you can still motivate students to success and personal pride; it just takes
some retraining and time. There is however no substitute for good
parenting. If parents instill this in their children from the
beginning, we would not have to. Parents I have found often times lack the
same motivation that we seek to instill in their children.

Have
the students watch "Remember the Titans", and "Pearl
Harbor"; these films help to teach these personal aspects I've
discussed as well as teamwork and goal oriented thinking. I sometimes
have discussions in my band hall about films that show examples of positive
behavior; it seems to be something they relate to.

It's not the
world we grew up in, that's for sure; and it is harder to instill success in
students, but we need to just keep plugging away.

Thanks for
the forum,Phil Sutherland

In response to: Time To End The
Bitterness; Time To Heal The Wounds!

Steve Salerno  is an award-winning essayist and author whose work on pop
culture, social institutions, entertainment, and media has appeared in
Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, the Wall Street Journal, and
other top publications. He has written three nonfiction books, one of which,
Deadly Blessing, became the TV movie Bed of Lies (Warner Bros. 1992). Salerno
was an honorary professor of journalism at Indiana University, and now
teaches writing at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. His early years were
spent playing lesser clubs and other gigs in the NYC area (various reeds),
and he remains an avid follower of jazz, as well as music of all genres. He
writes:

Marvin,

I read your
article "time to heal the wounds." And though it may not make you
feel any better, I think much of the phenomenon you so poignantly describe is
not confined to music, but rather is pan-social, in that it reflects--more
than anything else--the culture of youth worship that seems to have taken
hold ubiquitously in today's America. I see much the same thing in my own
realm of journalism. The magazines want to fill their pages with the writings
of OUR supposed "young lions," such that their bylines crowd out
those of us who--like me--have logged 20-plus years of working at the highest
levels of the industry. (They all have that same,
smart-ass, hipster voice, and they all seem to write in such a manner that
suggests they're more important than the event or trend they're (allegedly)
covering.) Only those elder statesmen/-women with the already famous names
(Wolfe, Vidal, Talese, Didion,
Ephron, a relative handful of others) are immune. There's even a joke afoot
in the industry that says that if you expect to have your photo run on the
contributor's page of most of today's better magazines, you'd damn well
better airbrush out the wrinkles, because their art editor, who's probably
all of 19 (I exaggerate, but not much), wouldn't want any such ravages of aging
offending his delicate visual sensisbilities as he
puts together his precious page. Indeed, I don't know if you get to watch
much morning TV, but next time you happen upon the Today Show and they're
featuring a consumer-finance segment, take note of the person they chose as
their resident "expert": It's a young woman from Money Magazine,
Jean Chatksy, who was picked for the slot ahead of
a dozen veteran financial journalists Today could've had, presumably because
Jean is (a) very young, and (b) very cute. I guess they figured she'd connect
better with their target audience than an old crusty sort like Lou Dobbs...

I don't know
what's to be done about all of this, Marvin. Certainly much of it is
advertiser-driven--with, of course, the American consumer landscape being in
the perpetual thrall of that coveted 18-34 demographic. This much I do know:
It is quite sad, and much of it is also probably quite illegal, though we
work in such slippery, subjective realms that it's hard to make a case stick
in the absence of the sort of smoking-gun evidence you cite with regard to
Lincoln Center.

Keep the
faith.

Kenny
Berger -
is a marvelous Jazz baritone saxophone player as well as a great doubler on bass clarinet and bassoon. He is one of the
most-in-demand musicians in NYC and plays with so many of the most important
names in Jazz. He writes:

Your mind and
heart are,as usual, in the
right place on the issues of racism and ageism in today's jazz world. I would
like to point out some ironies I have noticed in the way these factors have
taken shape in recent years. When Wynton first appeared on the scene, he
attended the University of Art Blakey and his first
solo recordings were derivative of the mid-60's Miles Davis Quintet and it
seemed he might go on to build on the foundation laid down by Miles and Wayne
Shorter at that time. Even before he adopted the arch conservative stance
which he is (in) famous for, he strongly advocated respect for our musical
elders and encouraged young players to cultivate stylistic depth by absorbingthe music of the
masters. Then we blinked and all of a sudden no jazz musician over 30 could
get arrested.

It's not
uncommon for outsiders to misinterpret what jazz is all about. Witness the
Beatniks in the 50's who identified with jazz based on the mistaken
assumption that all we do is "play what we feel" with no
forethought or group dynamic involved. The Madison Avenue and dotcom outsiders, similarly believed that the young pussycats
were the first young jazz musicians to make some noise and that the music had
previously been the province of old men. So even though Booker Little and
Clifford Brown left behind more original music than WM will if he lives to be
500, and even though Louis, Hawk and Bird were all in their twenties when
they revolutionized the music, the circus was now in town and there are still
no signs that it plans to pull up stakes. Even some so-called insiders jumped
on the band wagon, with Downbeat doing a feature issue a year or so ago
highlighting exiting new artists " all under
the age of 40."

My point is;
in the past, when outsiders misconstrued the meaning and practices of jazz,
it did no great harm because none of these groups ever had the wherewithal to
gain power over how the music was produced and disseminated and jazz wasn't
considered commercial enough to be worth the effort. Now, with a new
generation cute enough to sell Armani and DKNY rather than Conn and Selmer,
the stakes are high enough to bring the vultures around. Our only consolation
lies in the fact that what these folks will never understand is that the
thing that still matters most is the only thing they can't take away from us
old farts, and that's the music. Externally motivated people can never
understand why some people do what they do in spite of market conditions. All
I know is that when most of the young lions are 50- year-old computer
programmers, I plan to be an 80-year-old musician. Keep 'em
coming.

Eric Nemeyer- is the Publisher of Jazz Improv Magazine (a 240 page quarterly featuring
interviews, book excerpts, reviews, solo transcriptions, songs, analyses, How-to
and motivational articles along with a companion CD; website: http://www.jazzimprov.com/).
Eric is an instrumental performer on vibraphone and marimba (sometimes
doubles on piano or drums), and composer-arranger, and has performed or
recorded with Sonny Stitt, Hank Mobley, Joey DeFrancesco, Zoot Sims, Mickey Roker,
Tyrone Brown, Sid Simmons, Sam Dockery, Curtis Weaver and others. He earned a
Masters of Music Degree in Jazz Studies from the Eastman School of Music.
Eric is completing a new album on vibraphone for release in 2001. He writes:

I read your
article "Time For Bitterness to End: Time To Heal The Wounds." I
think it is all quite apropos and well-put.

You referred
to jazz musicians who have been dubbed "young lions" as making
recordings with others who share the same level of musical experience:
"How much can they learn from others just as inexperienced, compared to
the opportunity of being in the musical company of those who have spent years
finding their voices and refining their art?" The logic and common sense
inherent in your perspective cannot be overstated.

It is
certainly not uncommon for many teenagers, students in college, and college
graduates (recent or otherwise), or for that matter people of any age, to
posture themselves and share their perspectives about what an
"expert" they are. Probably all of us go through that for a while
(hopefully, it's only awhile). We believe we know sooooo
much when in that mindset. I love the sign I recently saw on someone's
refrigerator that said: "Attention, teenagers: Leave home now while you
still know everything!"

Needless to
say, as we grow older, if we have any open-mindedness at all, we are able to
recognize just how little we know - not just about music, but about
EVERYTHING. For one thing, biology, chemistry and physics as we currently
understand them - and a zillion other things in this universe - may not be
what we think they are or should be here on earth. And, like each of our own
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual conditions, everything is dynamic
and constantly changing.

And those of
us who are involved in the creative process - as players, composers,
arrangers - are constantly searching. We're looking to create new songs, new
arrangements, new solos, new approaches to these and many other things that
may be part of our creative universe. Wouldn't it therefore make sense that
the attitude that says "I have all the experience and expertise I
need....I'm really happening" would constantly (and in a negative way),
serve to undermine that ongoing search, potential growth and change? This is
the attitude of "experts." Afterall,
since "experts" may have attained a consummate level of knowledge,
proficiency or ability, there is little left for them to know or learn. This,
of course, runs contrary to the perspective of the artist.

Bertrand
Russell said: "The trouble with this world is that the stupid are
cock-sure, and the intelligent are full of doubt." I present this
perspective not to suggest which category I or any of the readers may fall
into, but rather as food for thought, that may encourage the healthy
self-questioning about what each of us want, do and think.

Certainly,
there may be more mature players (or people in any field) who have not been
aware enough over many years to have learned from their mistakes or gained
sufficient quality experience to share. But, those aside, more experienced
players bring with them a certain depth and richness that, at the very least,
is simply a function of their longer life experience. That life experience is
the ongoing accumulation of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual
experiences that we all gain, which contribute to our daily activities and
understanding. The life experience of older players can encompass so much
more, simply by virtue of the chronologically longer period it has taken to
accumulate that experience (as compared to players in their 20s, regardless
of how technically perfect and sanitized their playing may be).

Further, jazz
musicians tend to be intuitive, sensitive, aware, curious, searching, etc. as
a function of and in connection with their creativity. More experienced
players are likely to have been exercising that intuition, sensitivity and so
forth in many more situations, and therefore had the opportunity to have
gained significantly more (again by virtue of the simple passage of a greater
period of time) from their mistakes, failures, successes, challenges and so
on.

We know that
practicing your instrument can provide specific technical and musical
proficiencies over time. If you practice dutifully,
and "correctly" for ten hours a day, vs. one hour a day, more
proficiency may result. It is more difficult to quantify how life experience
may impact one's musical being. But certainly it has an important part to do
with how we each feel the music and many other things, express the music (and
everything else) and develop our own unique voice or musical fingerprint.

I think if we
were all motivated by logic, reason, fairness and the kind of thinking,
spirit and spirituality that your views (with which I thoroughly agree)
address, the kind of resolution to the undertone of bitterness and related
issues would inspire a less-then-complicated solution, and would occur
quickly. Disappointingly, it probably won't.

For one
thing, we're dealing with the complexity of human emotions and desires - and
a lot of selfishness. Everyone has their own agenda.

One of the
problems is that there is a lot of fear among industry participants. And fear
really prevents any of us from being generous or loving, I think. There is
the fear that "someone is going to take my job," or the fear that
someone - everyone - is going to find out that I'm not as competent or
wonderful as the press or the "buzz" has communicated, or the fear
that if I say something - even if it is logical or truthful - someone won't
like me or invite me to a party, or worse, won't hire me.....and on and on
and on.

The business
is loaded with this paranoia.

And, we as
humans have a curious way, in the privacy of our own minds, of enhancing
these imaginings to create wonderful (or not so wonderful) stories, fictions,
presumptions, prejudices about people - sometimes real,
and often imagined.

There is also
the issue of power. Some of the artist members of our very own jazz
community, people you identified in your article, are guilty of that. They
want to lord over what occurs in the jazz world, over what is accepted or
rejected. They want to be the be-all, end-all, and have the final word. And,
while some of us may believe that everyone is entitled to his or her
opinions, apparently some expect compliance to the way they think the jazz
world, if not the universe, SHOULD be - and how things need to conform to
their pre-understood expectations.

I believe
when we publish a review, article or letter to the Editor in Jazz Improv Magazine, that your view, the next person's view,
my view, is as important or unimportant as that of the "expert."

And, of
course, power can be a dangerous thing. I think people who have power
(someone who is perceived by some as the self-anointed spokesperson for the
jazz world comes to mind) also have a responsibility to employ it for other
than selfish purposes. I'd like to be able to say that I have observed
significant evidence of that selflessness. Expectedly, though (and the
described case is no exception), when most people attain such authority at a
young age, they are perhaps misled to believe that they ARE more special than
many other equally competent and special people.
Afterall, as the "self
anointed" or "important and all powerful OZ" would lead
him or herself to believe: "Who but the most special and competent
individual would be able to gain such notoriety, power, fame....etc.? If I
have this notoriety and power, and people tell me I'm great, I must be."

That brings
to mind concepts like "the Emperor's wearing no clothes (or maybe some
clothes) and the quote: "The moment a man thinks he is important, he no
longer is."

You pointed
out that "labels [are] dropping the young artists if they don't produce
"hits," if they don't become the next 'Wynton.' When this happens,
many of these new young artists are devastated because they don't understand
the realities of a recording industry now patterned after the 'pop' music
business."

I believe
these artists are disappointed (I hope they are not devastated) because they
have the great expectations that come with embracing that entitlement
attitude. They have been improperly told (perhaps by teachers, friends, other
artists and too many people) or informed (an illusion tied to the dollar
figure on their contracts) that they REALLY are something great - and they
believe it. (I like to think that compliments, like perfume, need to be
inhaled, not swallowed - and that a compliment needs to obligate us to become
even better.) Worse, many truly believe the overstatements regarding their
own importance. That belief in itself runs contrary to the understanding that
we are all seeking our voices as artists, that the life of an artist is a
lifelong process of growth and learning, and that we travel "the
path" of mastery always, as seekers in-process.

I think I am
only touching the surface here. The problems are more, and deeper than that,
too. The corresponding life experience, the reverence that comes with that
life experience, and the true reasons for creating music and documenting one's
creations (as you described) - all produce the kind of grounding for which
more mature artists may be constantly striving.

Challenges
and adversity play a big part in sparking growth and change. Perhaps it is
that adversity of being dropped by a record label, and so forth, that may
produce positive changes in those "artist-victims", thereby
creating more of the people that can contribute to the end of the bitterness,
and call for the healing of wounds that you identify so well.

With respect
to fear, there is a palpable desperation among artists that I sense everyday in my communications with them - by phone,
e-mail, etc. The fear I hear expressed centers around and is
a function of finance and attitude. The finance involves many things,
including that there are fewer places to play jazz and earn a reasonable
amount of compensation today; the feeling by artists that there is improper
compensation by certain labels controlling their works....

There is an
all too prevalent entitlement attitude among many. It is the attitude that
"my music is really important," "I deserve more gigs,"
"I deserve fame," I deserve more money...I deserve....I
deserve....I deserve."

That
underlying foundational understanding is coupled with the hollow-sounding statement
by many artists that they are making records to "give something
back." If "giving back" were the real focus, wouldn't these
artists give away as many of the CDs as they made to bring joy to the world,
or at least to their jazz fans? (Obviously, I hardly expect an artist to give
away his or her wares. I wouldn't.)

Let's
remember that jazz garners about 3% of all industry record sales. We may want
other people to embrace it. We can't expect them to do so - we reasonably can
expect the opportunity to expose people to the music and make their own
choices. That all points to the fact that there are other important issues in
this world. There are many selfless people giving of themselves, for example,
in the fields of medicine, education, law, social work and so forth. To put
it in perspective, it is difficult to equate the "taking" (as
opposed to giving) attitude that is so much a part of jazz --- the
self-importance placed by artists on releasing their CDs, preoccupied with
how high on the airplay charts they reach, and whether the album may be
nominated for an award, how many positive reviews they get, and how many gigs
that generates, etc, etc. etc. - versus, for
example, the selfless giving of (1) the local Emergency Medical Team, or work
(at very low pay initially), or (2) by Erin Brockovich
to expose the environmental poisoning created and covered up by PG&E
which resulted in proper compensation to some 600 innocent victims who
contracted cancer, blood disorders and other diseases, or (3) the DNA and
gene mapping projects that on the good side may enable us to discover more
about life, and grow and help.

All in all,
there are fewer and fewer income-producing situations enabling artists to
earn a reasonable living compared to what existed twenty or more years ago.
There are simply fewer opportunities. Many musicians are
desperately wanting a place in the shrinking spotlight. I think the
unfortunate aspects of unfair and undeserved, behind-the-back-criticism by
one musician against another, and the increasing
competitiveness are likely to continue. It's human nature - albeit, the less
appealing part. Big egos will always be there - so someone will always want
to lead or take credit for the good results for which you are making a plea
(and with which, again, I agree). Of course, if someone tries to step forward
and take credit, that undermines and corrupts the purity of purpose --- and
could serve to be less-than-helpful in the efforts to unite the industry
participants.

If I could
snap my fingers and make your - indeed, our - wishes happen, I would.
Meanwhile, I support your premise and will do what I can to help.

Stanley
Friedman
- is a composer of operatic, orchestral and chamber works for brass and
other instruments. He has held principal trumpet positions with several
international orchestras and currently teaches at the Interlochen
Arts Academy. He frequently performs and conducts his compositions at
universities and music festivals. He may be contacted through his
website: www.stanleyfriedman.com He writes:

In response
to your latest article on racism/ageism in the recording biz:

What an
eloquent essay! Miss Metz would have given you an A+! What a pity, though,
that your intellect and creativity and, obviously, so much of your precious
time and energy had to be invested to address such deplorable practices. Your
words should be read and re-read by everyone connected with or even
interested in jazz (and in Classical music as well; as I've written before in
this forum, things aren't much different in Classical music).

I'd much
rather just hear you play your horn, which you do with even more perfect
eloquence. But you always speak truth, whether with notes or words. Keep
doing what you have to do!

Bruce
Collier
- is an old friend from days when I was at North Texas and who was
involved in the recording industry at that time. He is now involved in
communications, but maintains a strong interest in
music, particularly Jazz. He writes:

Marvin...yes,
you have exposed a common "burr", "thorn" or whatever
about the state of a lot more than the jazz music business. And after reading
it, I wonder how the demographic affirmation curve would look regarding your
position. Perhaps it restates the life experience element so necessary
to see something that might not be apparent to (generalizing) the "dot
com" generation.

Media...no,
make that "mindless media"...reaffirms a basic missing link to
establishing "taking a position". Lack of experience and
individuality are more and more problem areas. The "marketing
people" reflect what's easy and depthless - and jazz, always a
"boutique, intelligent art form" becomes even more of an
underground effort. How can this be?

I look at Ken
Burns' recent series and while admiring the work that goes into such an
endeavor, see much of what you wonder about...and hope to see change. There
is way too much marketing pandering regarding stereotypical current views for
me. But isn't it interesting that the amount of publicity and interest
regarding the subject matter has been nothing short ofincredible!

My personal
feeling (and you've heard this from me before) is that this limited,
intelligent, creative venue, jazz, is in many
ways it's own worst enemy. Wynton's educational
efforts to the masses I've always admired. Any professional jazz picker that
has an opportunity to not only play well, but to
enlist and recruit and inform, is not doing the basics regarding your
concerns. Spread the word, accept talent, and investigate the message at any
level (age, race, etc) is positive jazz marketing.

Commitment
and talent will seemingly always win out for the limited few -except -perhaps
now more than ever- experience should be shared...

Don
Freeman -
is a great supporter of various music groups,
having sponsored many concers in his home for
various groups of friends and music lovers. He writes:

What an
insightful and sad essay. For someone with your talent and commitment
to have to write it today is truly sad . I am
not a member of your Jazz community, however I am awed
by the talent, past and present. I am truly sorry that you are so
filled with anger and anxiety. Perhaps it will change, but I don't think it
will because the trouble is rooted in greed .